Design and Implementation of a Grasping Tubesheet-climbing Robot for Heat Exchange Tube Detection

Aiming at the requirements of automatic inspection of heat exchange tube with multiple specifications, a new grasping tubesheet-climbing robot (GTCBot) is proposed. Firstly, a robot with self-locking climbing-foot is designed based on the map features of multi-specification large-area tubesheet and the climbing mechanism of three-toe woodpecker, which can adapt to different sizes of tubesheet. A static model is established to carry out force analysis and load evaluation during robot operation. In order to improve the scanning efficiency of heat exchange tube, a hybrid scanning method for Cartesian coordinate system and column coordinate system is proposed, and a kinematic model is built to analyze and verify the robot's workspace. In order to ensure the stable operation of the control system, the FreeRTOS embedded real-time operating system is used to schedule and coordinate each task during robot operation. On this basis, the physical prototype of the grasping tubesheet-climbing robot is developed, and the laboratory experiment and field application test are carried out respectively. The test results show that the robot has the ability of grasping self-locking, high mobility and high adaptability.