A Mathematical Framework for Analysis and Design of MagneticClimbing Mobile Robots

Robotic platforms that can successfully traverse atypical environments like those found on steel bridges, turbines, and silos are currently being researched and developed globally through funding from a range of governments. Improvements to robots of this type are highly desirable because efficient and detailed inspection of infrastructure is in demand as the world's current infrastructure ages. In this thesis we propose a framework of analysis for the engineering and design of magnetic steel climbing mobile robots to standardize the industries approach toward these robotic solutions. This framework equips members of the computer science and engineering field with the knowledge to analyze their own design concepts and optimize for desired parameters. In addition, this framework provides engineers with the ability to quantify the degree of confidence they would prefer through the definition of factor of safety (FOS) equations. The application of this framework has assisted the design of two state-of-the-art robots created by the Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) Lab of the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and has also been used to analyze previous robotic designs. The ARA Lab's V3 and V4 robots designed through the application of this framework have been created. The successful functioning of them shows that the framework proposed in this thesis can efficiently predict operating capabilities and consequently, will help to reduce the frequency and cost of potential future project design failures by allowing designers to catch them before purchasing, manufacturing and physical verification testing is performed.

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's Degree

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Motley, Cadence

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• La, Hung M

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Louis, Sushil
• Pekcan, Gokhan

• Analysis
• Climbing Robotics
• Design Framework
• Robot Design
• Robot Mechanics

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 United States

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11714/7859

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/7859