The International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction
Publications / 2011 Proceedings of the 28th ISARC, Seoul, Korea
Innovative Micro-Walking Robot Using Flexible Microactuator
In the area of Robotics, the micro-walking robots play a very important role as it is required to perform inspection and maintenance inside pipelines or narrow spaces where people cannot enter. Extensive research work is under way in the design and control of the micro-walking robot. An exhaustive survey of all such robots conveys the idea of higher and higher sophistication with innumerable components and elaborate controls with programmable ability. Micro- walking robots proposed by earlier researchers use flexible micro actuators that have two or more internal chambers whose internal pressures are controlled independently. The proposed micro-walking robot uses flexible micro actuators (FMA) that are having single internal chamber with an innovative Electro-pneumatic control algorithm (EPCA), simple feedback mechanism and which are compact and easy to manufacture. The present work has paved the way for extensive research on this innovative technique as it holds out the true potential for very interesting applications in various areas such as robot grippers, pipeline inspection robots and underwater robots.