Skip to main content
Log in

Numerical controlled robot crawler: new resource for industries with large scale products

  • Production Process
  • Published:
Production Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel mobile automation resource for industries with large scale products. The inherent challenges of large structures for an automation system are discussed and requirements for a mobile machine are derivated. Based on the kinematic investigation, a hybrid kinematic mechanical structure is developed to fulfill the requirements. The characteristics of hybrid kinematics especially for the kinematic transformation and the resulting advantages are introduced. The necessary adhesion system to enable a safe and reliable movement on different surfaces is described. Additionally, the control concept is presented and the intrinsic challenges of using an industrial machine tool control for a mobile robot are shown. Finally, first results of the experimental application are presented.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Brumson B (2012) New applications for mobile robots. In: Robotics online

  2. Kuka Roboter GmbH: Kein Job zu Groß, kein Weg zu weit: Die Konzeptstudie “moiros” 2013

  3. Bogue R (2010) The role of robotics in non-destructive testing. Ind Rob Int J 37(5):S421–S426

  4. Tuls R (2004) External inspection: high resolution MFL robotic pipe scanner (RPS), Second MENDT proceedings

  5. Heller K, Niemeier T (2007) Remotely operated robots and minimally invasive tooling for safe, cost effective inspection and maintenance. In: Fleet maintenance symposium

  6. National Transportation Safety Board (1988) Aloha Airlines, Flight 243, Boeing 737–200, N73711, USA

  7. White TS, Callow G, Cooke S, Harris S, Sargent J (2005) A mobile climbing robot for high precision manufacture and inspection of aerostructures. Int J Rob Res 24(7):S589–S598

  8. Shang J, Satter T, Chen S, Bridge B (2007) Design of a climbing robot for inspecting aircraft wings and fuselage. J Ind Rob 34(6):S495–S502

  9. Marguet B, Cibiel C, Francisco Ó, Felip B (2010) Crawler robots for drilling and fastener installation: an innovative breakthrough in aerospace automation

  10. Neugebauer R (Hrsg.) (2006) Parallelkinematische maschinen. s.l 2006

  11. Merlet JP (2006) Parallel robots. Solid mechanics and its applications, 2 edn. Springer, Dordrecht

  12. Albu-Schäffer A, Haddadin S, Ott C, Stemmer A, Wimböck T, Hirzinger G (2007) The DLR lightweight robot: design and control concepts for robots in human environments. J Ind Rob 34(5):S376–S385

  13. Oetomo D, Hwee CL, Alici G, Shirinzadeh B (2006) Direct kinematics and analytical solution to 3RRR parallel planar mechanisms: control, automation, robotics and vision, 2006. ICARCV ‘06. 9th International conference on 2006

  14. Bonev I (2008) Direct kinematics of zero-torsion parallel mechanisms: robotics and automation. In: IEEE international conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

  15. Williams RL, Shelley BH (1997) Inverse kinematics for planar parallel manipulators: proceedings of ASME design technical conferences

  16. Zhao D, Wei H, Zhang H, Ni T (2010) Explicit solution for inverse kinematics of 3-RPS parallel link manipulator: computer, Mechatronics, Control and Electronic Engineering (CMCE). International conference

  17. Laplante PA, Ovaska SJ (2012) Real-time systems design and analysis. Tools for the practitioner, 4th edn. Hoboken, NJ

  18. Schlosser C, Tobias K, Schüppstuhl T (2014) Online determination of kinematic singularities without jacobian matrices. 45th International symposium on robotics/8th German conference on robotics

Download references

Acknowledgments

The results presented in this paper are based on the work of the project “Thermas” founded by the “Hamburg Ministry of Economy and Transportation” in cooperation with Lufthansa AG. We also want to thank the Siemens AG for supporting us in NC-control issues.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Schlosser.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Schlosser, C., Schüppstuhl, T. Numerical controlled robot crawler: new resource for industries with large scale products. Prod. Eng. Res. Devel. 8, 719–725 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-014-0565-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-014-0565-8

Keywords

Navigation