Research on the Traction and Obstacle-Surmounting Performance of an Adaptive Pipeline-Plugging Robot

Abstract

To solve a series of problems, such as damage, increased impurities and obstacles caused by medium corrosion, and erosion in the long-term use of the pipeline, a multi-body distributed adaptive pipeline plugging and repairing robot with good driving performance and strong reliability is proposed by using the modular design method. By establishing the obstacle-crossing model of the robot, the traction equation and obstacle-crossing equation of the driving wheel and supporting wheel are studied. It can be seen from the equation that reducing the deflection angle of the driving wheel or reducing the speed of the motor spindle can improve the obstacle-crossing ability. The driving unit model is established in ADAMS software, and its running speed, driving force, and obstacle-crossing height are simulated and analysed. The model prototype is established and verified with experiments. When the deflection angle of the robot driving wheel is set to 20° to 35°, it meets the design requirements. When the deflection angle of the driving wheel is set to 20°, the robot has large traction, good running stability and high obstacle-crossing height. The maximum obstacle-crossing height is 6 mm. At this time, the robot reaches the best running state. The design of an adaptive leakage plugging robot for buried pipelines provides an important reference for the research and development of pipeline emergency prevention and control equipment.