A Study of the Hybrid Mechanism of Wheel and Crawler for AutonomousLocomotion in Pipe by Steering Wheels

为了使我们能够监测或保证管道是否具有安全的内部状态，我们设计了一种基本由一对轮对和履带组成的自调节车辆。车辆由直驱电机驱动，因此满足转向规格。设计并制作了车辆与其中央控制处理器之间的接口。在中央控制，采集到的图像进行处理。实际上，为了获得较大的牵引力，采用了由车轮和履带组成的混合动力机构。由于管道内部空间有限，直接驱动电机嵌入履带单元内部，传动轴两端有蜗轮蜗轮，用于放大牵引力。此外，螺钉被放置在相反的方向，以便用于支持履带的链轮数量减少。考虑了诸如立交角、扭转角、中心的角位移和从飞行器的重力方向的角位移等变量的影响。采用四倍分辨率旋转编码器采集变量，实现了车辆的自动控制。两个履带单元被压在管道壁上，始终与车辆中心方向相反。其中一个是主人，另一个是奴隶。因此，车辆可以沿着各种形状、大小和方向的管道移动。此外，车辆将激光束投射到其前部以提取管道内部的三维轮廓，并且管道上的亮点叠加在屏幕上，并由几乎安装在车辆中心线上的CCD摄像机监控。光斑位置从图像数据中识别出来，并在三维空间中确定，因为光束是通过开关控制程序投射的，光束角度是通过传感反射镜角度给出的。当车辆移动时，图像数据被重复地传输到图像处理器。图像处理器通过对所收集的数据应用模式匹配方法来提供管道内部的概要文件。少

In order to enable us to monitor or to assure whether a pipe has a safe interior condition, we have designed a self-adjusting vehicle composed basically of a pair of wheel set and a crawler. The vehicle is driven by a directdrive motor so the steering specification is satisfied. The interfaces between the vehicle and its central control processor are also designed and fabricated. At the central control, the collected image is processed.In fact, the hybrid mechanism composed of wheels, and a crawler is adopted for getting a big force of traction. Since the interior of the pipe is limited in space, the direct drive motor is embedded inside the crawler unit, and both ends of the driving shaft has a worm gear for force of traction's magnification. Also, the screws are placed in opposite directions so that the sprockets for supporting the crawler belt decreases in number. Affects of such variables like a standing angle, twisting angle, angular shift of the center, and angular shift from the … More gravitational direction of the vehicle are considered. Four-times resolution rotary encoders are utilized to collect the variables, and the encoders contribute for controling the vehicle autonomously .Two units of the crawlers are pressed against the wall of the pipe always in opposite direction from the center of the vehicle. One of the two is controlled as a master and the other one as a slave. Ther fore, the vehicle can move along pipes having various kinds of shape, size, and orientation. Moreover, the vehicle throws a laser beamin its front to extract a three dimensional profile of the pipe interior, and the brighy spot on the pipe is superimposed in the screen and monitored by a CCD camera mounted almost on the center line of the vehicle. The spot position is discriminated from the image data and is determined in 3-D space since the beam is thrown by an on-off control program and the beam angle is given by sensing mirror angles. Image data is transferred to the image processor repetitively while the vehicle moves. The image processor provides a profile of the pipe internal by applying a pattern matching method to the collected data. Less