A robotic vehicle (100) for traversing surfaces comprises a chassis having a plurality of wheels (117, 118, 128) mounted thereto. Two magnetic drive wheels (117, 118) are spaced apart in a lateral direction and rotate about a rotational axis (154) while a stabilizing wheel (128) is provided in front of or behind the two drive wheels. The drive wheels are configured to be driven independently, thereby driving and steering the vehicle along the surface. The vehicle also includes a sensor probe assembly (130) that is supported by the chassis and configured to take measurements of the surface being traversed. In accordance with a salient aspect, the vehicle includes a probe normalization mechanism (170) that is configured to determine the surface curvature and adjust the orientation of the probe transducer as a function of the curvature of the surface, thereby maintaining the probe at the preferred inspection angle irrespective of changes in the surface curvature with vehicle movement.
一种用于横越表面的机器人车辆(100)包括底盘,所述底盘具有安装在其上的多个车轮(117,118,128)。两个磁性驱动轮(117,118)在横向方向上间隔开并且围绕旋转轴线(154)旋转,同时稳定轮(128)设置在所述两个驱动轮前方或后方。所述驱动轮被配置成被独立地驱动,从而沿所述表面驱动所述车辆和使所述车辆转向。所述车辆还包含传感器探测器组件(130),所述传感器探测器组件由所述底盘支撑并且被配置成对正被横越的所述表面进行测量。根据显著方面,所述车辆包含探测器归一化机构(170),所述探测器归一化机构被配置成确定表面曲率并且根据所述表面的所述曲率来调节探测器换能器的定向,从而将探测器保持在优选的检查角度,而与所述表面曲率随车辆移动的变化无关。
CRAWLER VEHICLE WITH AUTOMATIC PROBE NORMALIZATION
具有自动探测器归一化的履带车
2021-06-29
Patent
Electronic Resource
Chinese
TWO-WHEEL COMPACT INSPECTION CRAWLER WITH AUTOMATIC PROBE NORMALIZATION
European Patent Office | 2022
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