CN109357105B

CN109357105B - Wheel-track combined type pipeline robot

Info

Publication number: CN109357105B
Application number: CN201811197808.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 任涛; 张印; 张均富; 李雨佳
Original assignee: Xihua University
Current assignee: Chengdu Univeristy of Technology
Priority date: 2018-10-15
Filing date: 2018-10-15
Publication date: 2020-05-19
Anticipated expiration: 2038-10-15
Also published as: CN109357105A

Abstract

The invention discloses a wheel-track combined type pipeline robot which comprises a crawler type advancing driving device, two driven wheel devices and a controller, wherein the advancing driving device is provided with two L-shaped brackets in bilateral symmetry, one ends of the two L-shaped brackets are fixed on the advancing driving device, the other ends of the two L-shaped brackets are vertically downward, and the two driven wheel devices are respectively arranged on the two L-shaped brackets; the driven wheel device comprises a driven wheel, a lifting mechanism for driving the driven wheel to lift and a steering mechanism for driving the driven wheel to steer; the lifting mechanism comprises a first motor, a first driving gear, a first driven gear, a screw rod and a guide rod; the steering mechanism comprises a second motor, a second driving gear, a second driven gear and a rotating shaft; a pressure sensor is arranged on the driven wheel; the controller is connected with the advancing driving device, the first motor, the second motor and the pressure sensor. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot has excellent pipe diameter adaptability, obstacle crossing capability and traction capability.

Description

Wheel-track combined type pipeline robot

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of pipeline robots, in particular to a wheel-track combined type pipeline robot.

Background

With the construction and development of pipe networks, pipelines are used as important fluid conveying tools and widely applied to multiple fields of petroleum, chemical industry, construction, natural gas, nuclear industry and the like. The fluid transported inside the pipe can cause damage to the pipe wall due to the characteristics of high temperature, high pressure, high flow velocity, corrosion and the like. The exterior of the pipe is easily corroded by moisture and chemical substances, and is easily physically damaged by extrusion, impact and the like. Once the pipeline is damaged, the dangerous fluid leaks, which may cause a great deal of casualties, great property loss and serious environmental pollution. In order to eliminate the potential safety hazards, the most effective method is to perform periodic detection and maintenance on the pipeline, and a plurality of mature passive pipeline robot technologies exist for the long-distance pipeline with large diameter. However, for small-diameter pipelines with diameter of less than 300mm, passive pipeline robots cannot be used for detection and maintenance due to the limitation of size and structure, and the method becomes an important problem to be solved urgently at home and abroad.

In the prior art, a pipeline robot applied to a small-diameter pipeline mostly adopts a wheel type driving mechanism, a plurality of driving wheels are distributed in an annular mode, and the driving wheels are attached to the inner wall of the pipeline by utilizing a pre-tightening mechanism. However, such wheeled pipeline robots have poor adaptability and obstacle-crossing capability in complex pipeline environments, and are often blocked and tipped in the process of traveling. There is pipeline robot to adopt crawler-type actuating mechanism, a plurality of crawler-type actuating mechanisms make up under pretension mechanism's effect, make and produce the positive pressure between pipeline robot and the pipeline inner wall, thereby the whole motion in the pipeline of drive robot, but crawler-type actuating mechanism self structure size is great, make the overall structure size of the pipeline robot after a plurality of crawler-type actuating mechanisms make up also great, this kind of pipeline robot is difficult to be applicable to the detection of little pipe diameter pipeline.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the problems that in the prior art, a pipeline robot is poor in pipeline environment adaptive capacity and is difficult to detect in a small-diameter pipeline, the invention provides a wheel-track combined type pipeline robot which is strong in obstacle crossing capacity and large in pipe diameter adaptive range.

To achieve the above objects and other advantages, the present invention provides a wheel-track compound type pipeline robot including a track type travel driving device, two driven wheel devices, and a controller. The crawler type advancing driving device comprises a driving motor, and the driving motor drives the crawler to rotate forwards and backwards. A bottom plate is fixedly arranged on the advancing driving device through screws, and L-shaped supports are respectively arranged at the left end and the right end of the bottom plate. The two L-shaped brackets are arranged in bilateral symmetry with respect to the travel driving device. L type support one end is fixed on the bottom plate, and the other end is vertical downwards for the vertical section of L type support sets up downwards. Two driven wheel devices are respectively arranged on the two L-shaped brackets.

The driven wheel device comprises a driven wheel, a lifting mechanism for driving the driven wheel to lift and a steering mechanism for driving the driven wheel to steer. The lifting mechanism comprises a first motor, a first driving gear, a first driven gear, a screw rod and a guide rod. The first motor is fixed on the horizontal section of the L-shaped bracket, the power output end of the first motor is connected with a first driving gear, and the first driving gear is meshed with a first driven gear; the screw rod and the guide rod are arranged on the outer side of the vertical section of the L-shaped support and are parallel to the vertical section of the L-shaped support, and the screw rod is installed on the L-shaped support through a screw rod supporting seat. The top end of the screw rod is fixedly connected with the first driven gear. Two ends of the guide rod are respectively fixed on the L-shaped bracket through the guide rod supporting seat. The screw rod and the guide rod are simultaneously sleeved with a sliding block, the sliding block can move up and down along with the rotation of the screw rod, a tray is installed on the sliding block, and a steering mechanism is arranged on the tray.

The steering mechanism comprises a second motor, a second driving gear, a second driven gear and a rotating shaft. The second motor is fixed on the tray, a power output end of the second motor is connected with a second driving gear, the second driving gear is meshed with a second driven gear, a rotating shaft is perpendicular to the tray, the bottom end of the rotating shaft is connected with the second driven gear, the top end of the rotating shaft is fixedly connected with a driven wheel through a driven wheel support, and a pressure sensor is arranged on the driven wheel and used for detecting the pressure of the driven wheel on the inner wall of a pipeline. The range of the rotation angle of the steering mechanism is-90 degrees to +90 degrees.

The controller is connected with the advancing driving device, the first motor, the second motor and the pressure sensor.

Preferably, the upper end of the driven wheel bracket is U-shaped, and a driven wheel is arranged in the U-shape; the bottom end of the driven wheel support is provided with at least one protruding part, and the top end of the rotating shaft is provided with at least one groove. The number of the convex parts of the driven wheel bracket is the same as that of the grooves of the rotating shaft. The protruding parts of the driven wheel support and the grooves of the rotating shaft are matched with each other in a one-to-one correspondence mode, and the height positions of the protruding parts in the grooves can be adjusted. The rotating shaft is sleeved with an annular spring, and two ends of the spring are respectively abutted against the driven wheel bracket and the tray.

Preferably, a control box is arranged above the bottom plate, a controller and a power supply are placed in the control box, and the power supply supplies power to the whole robot.

Preferably, two guide rods are symmetrically arranged on two sides of the screw rod, and two ends of each guide rod are fixed on the L-shaped support through guide rod support seats respectively.

Further preferably, the first motor is fixedly installed on the lower surface of the horizontal section of the L-shaped bracket, the first driving gear and the first driven gear are installed on the upper surface of the horizontal section, and the first driving gear is located right above the first motor.

Preferably, the second motor is fixed on the tray, the second driving gear and the second driven gear are located at the bottom of the tray, the second driving gear is vertically opposite to the second motor, the bottom end of the rotating shaft penetrates through the tray and is connected with the second driven gear at the bottom of the tray, and the rotating shaft is rotatable relative to the tray.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following beneficial effects:

the invention provides a wheel-track combined type pipeline robot structure, and a lifting mechanism and a steering mechanism are designed to enable the pipeline robot to have the pipe diameter adaptive capacity and the active adjusting capacity of the posture in a pipe. Through controlling the rotation of the lifting driving motor (the first motor) in the two lifting mechanisms, the up-down movement of the two driven wheels can be realized, so that the pipeline robot has strong pipe diameter adaptability. The direction of the two driven wheels is changed by controlling the rotation of a steering driving motor (a second motor) in the two steering mechanisms, so that the active adjustment of the posture of the robot in the pipeline is realized, and the pipeline robot has strong obstacle avoidance capability in the pipeline. In addition, the positive pressure between the robot and the inner wall of the pipeline is increased through the spring arranged on the rotating shaft, so that the traction capacity of the pipeline robot in the pipeline is improved. The invention has simple structure, and can carry the power supply and the controller needed by the robot, thereby realizing the cableless operation of the robot in the pipe.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of the robot of the present invention in a pipeline.

Fig. 2 is a schematic side structure view of the robot in the pipeline.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the attitude of the robot of the present invention when the robot is in obstacle crossing in a pipeline.

Reference numbers in the figures:

1-a traveling driving device, 2-a bottom plate, 3-an L-shaped bracket, 4-a first motor, 5-a first driving gear, 6-a first driven gear, 7-a lead screw, 8-a guide rod, 9-a guide rod supporting seat, 10-a lead screw supporting seat, 11-a sliding block, 12-a tray, 13-a second motor, 14-a second driving gear, 15-a second driven gear, 16-a rotating shaft, 17-a spring, 18-a driven wheel bracket, 19-a driven wheel, 20-a pipeline and 21-a control box.

Detailed Description

The present invention is further described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings so that those skilled in the art can implement the invention by referring to the description text.

It will be understood that terms such as "having," "including," and "comprising," as used herein, do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other elements or groups thereof.

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the present invention provides a wheel-track compound type pipeline robot, which includes a track type traveling driving device 1, two driven wheel devices and a controller. The crawler travel drive apparatus 1 includes a drive motor (not shown) provided inside thereof, and the drive motor drives the crawler forward and backward. A bottom plate 2 is fixedly arranged on the advancing driving device 1 through screws, and L-shaped brackets 3 are respectively arranged at the left end and the right end of the bottom plate 2. The two L-shaped brackets 3 are disposed bilaterally symmetrically with respect to the travel drive device 1. One end of the L-shaped support 3 is fixed on the bottom plate 2, and the other end of the L-shaped support is vertically downward, so that a vertical section of the L-shaped support is downward arranged. Two driven wheel devices are respectively arranged on the two L-shaped brackets 3. A control box 21 is arranged above the bottom plate 2, and a controller (not shown) and a power supply (not shown) are arranged in the control box 21 and used for supplying power to the whole robot.

The driven wheel device comprises a driven wheel 19, a lifting mechanism for driving the driven wheel 19 to lift and a steering mechanism for driving the driven wheel 19 to steer. The lifting mechanism comprises a first motor 4 driven to lift, a first driving gear 5, a first driven gear 6, a screw rod 7 and a guide rod 8. First motor 4 fixed mounting is at the lower surface of the horizontal segment of L type support 3, and first driving gear 5 and first driven gear 6 install at the horizontal segment upper surface, and first driving gear 5 is located directly over first motor 4. The power output end of the first motor 4 is connected with a first driving gear 5, and the first driving gear 5 is meshed with a first driven gear 6. The screw rod 7 and the guide rod 8 are arranged on the outer side of the vertical section of the L-shaped support 3 and are parallel to the vertical section of the L-shaped support. The screw rod 7 is arranged on the L-shaped bracket 3 through a screw rod supporting seat 10. The top end of the screw rod 7 is fixedly connected with the first driven gear 6. The guide rod 8 is fixed on the L-shaped bracket 3 through a guide rod supporting seat 9. Further, two guide rods 8 are symmetrically arranged on two sides of the screw rod 7, and two ends of each guide rod 8 are fixed on the L-shaped support 3 through guide rod supporting seats 9 respectively. The screw rod 7 and the guide rod 8 are simultaneously sleeved with a sliding block 11, the sliding block 11 can move up and down along with the rotation of the screw rod 7, the sliding block 11 is fixedly connected with a tray 12, and the tray 12 is provided with a steering mechanism.

The steering mechanism comprises a second motor 13 driven by steering, a second driving gear 14, a second driven gear 15 and a rotating shaft 16. The second motor 13 is fixed on the tray 12, the second driving gear 14 and the second driven gear 15 are located at the bottom of the tray 12, and the second driving gear 14 is vertically opposite to the second motor 13. The power output end of the second motor 13 is connected with a second driving gear 14, and the second driving gear 14 is meshed with a second driven gear 15. The rotating shaft 16 is perpendicular to the tray 12, and the bottom end of the rotating shaft 16 passes through the tray 12 and is connected with the second driven gear 15 at the bottom of the tray, and the rotating shaft 16 can rotate relative to the tray 12. A driven wheel bracket 18 is arranged at the top end of the rotating shaft 16, and a driven wheel 19 is arranged on the driven wheel bracket 18. A pressure sensor (not shown) is provided on the driven wheel 19 to detect the pressure of the driven wheel 19 against the inner wall of the pipe 20. The steering mechanism is driven by the second motor 13 to rotate by an angle ranging from-90 to + 90.

The controller is respectively connected with the traveling driving device 1, the first motor 4, the second motor 13 and the pressure sensor, and is used for controlling the working states of the traveling driving device 1, the first motor 4 and the second motor 13, so that the whole pipeline robot is controlled.

In another embodiment, the upper end of the driven wheel bracket 18 is in a U shape, and a driven wheel 19 is arranged in the U shape; the driven wheel support 18 is provided with at least one protrusion at the bottom end thereof, and the top end of the rotating shaft is provided with at least one groove. The number of the convex parts of the driven wheel bracket is the same as that of the grooves of the rotating shaft. The protruding parts of the driven wheel support and the grooves of the rotating shaft are matched with each other in a one-to-one correspondence mode, and the height positions of the protruding parts in the grooves can be adjusted. The rotating shaft is sleeved with an annular spring 17, and the two ends of the spring 17 are respectively abutted against the driven wheel bracket 18 and the tray 12. The elastic force acts on the driven wheel under the elastic force of the spring, thereby regulating the positive pressure between the driven wheel 19 and the inner wall surface of the pipe 20.

The working principle of the wheel-track combined type pipeline robot adapting to the change of the pipe diameter is as follows:

the pipeline robot is electrified through a power supply in a control box 21, the pipeline robot is placed in a pipeline 20, a controller controls two first motors 4 (lifting driving motors) to be started, the lifting mechanism can be controlled to ascend and descend through positive rotation and reverse rotation, the first motors 4 transmit motion to a first driven gear 6 through a first driving gear 5, the first driven gear 6 drives a screw rod 7 to rotate, a sliding block 11 drives a tray 12 to move through rotation of the screw rod 7, and two driven wheels 19 arranged on a driven wheel support 18 move up and down along the axial direction of the screw rod 7; when the driven wheel 19 is attached to the pipeline 20, the attachment condition of the driven wheel 19 and the inner wall of the pipeline 20 is detected through a pressure sensor (not shown), the controller controls the working state of the first motor 4 based on a received detection signal of the pressure sensor, after the first motor 4 stops, the spring in a compressed state has a stretching trend under the action of the spring 17, acting force is applied to the driven wheel, positive pressure between the driven wheel and the inner wall surface of the pipeline is increased, the traction capacity of the pipeline robot in the pipeline is improved, and the wheel-track combined type pipeline robot adapts to the change of the pipe diameter in the pipeline.

As shown in fig. 3, the working principle of the wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of the present invention to actively adjust the posture in the pipeline is as follows:

the power through in the control box 21 is given the pipeline robot circular telegram, put into pipeline 20 with the pipeline robot, through the rotation of two second motors 13 of controller control (turning to driving motor), the corotation and the reversal control of accessible motor turn to the angle, second motor 13 passes through second driving gear 14 with the motion and transmits on second driven gear 15, second driven gear 15 drives the pivot 16 rotatory, it turns to with follow driving wheel 19 to rotate from driving wheel support 18, can make the posture change of wheel-track combined type pipeline robot in pipeline 20, thereby avoid intraductal obstacle to travel.

In conclusion, the wheel-track combined type pipeline robot provided by the invention is strong in obstacle crossing capability and large in pipe diameter adapting range. The problem of among the prior art pipeline robot adaptation pipeline environment ability poor, be difficult to use pipeline robot to detect in the small diameter pipeline is overcome.

While embodiments of the invention have been disclosed above, it is not intended to be limited to the uses set forth in the specification and examples. It can be applied to all kinds of fields suitable for the present invention. Additional modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. It is therefore intended that the invention not be limited to the exact details and illustrations described and illustrated herein, but fall within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A wheel-track combined type pipeline robot is characterized by comprising a track type advancing driving device, two driven wheel devices and a controller, wherein the advancing driving device is provided with two L-shaped brackets in bilateral symmetry, one ends of the two L-shaped brackets are fixed on the advancing driving device, the other ends of the two L-shaped brackets are vertically downward, and the two driven wheel devices are respectively arranged on the two L-shaped brackets;

the driven wheel device comprises a driven wheel, a lifting mechanism for driving the driven wheel to lift and a steering mechanism for driving the driven wheel to steer;

the lifting mechanism comprises a first motor, a first driving gear, a first driven gear, a screw rod and a guide rod; the first motor is fixed on the horizontal section of the L-shaped support, the power output end of the first motor is connected with a first driving gear, the first driving gear is meshed with a first driven gear, a screw rod and a guide rod are arranged on the outer side of the vertical section of the L-shaped support and are parallel to the vertical section of the L-shaped support, the top end of the screw rod is fixedly connected with the first driven gear, a sliding block is sleeved on the screw rod and the guide rod simultaneously, the sliding block can move up and down along with the rotation of the screw rod, a tray is fixed on the sliding block, and a steering mechanism;

the steering mechanism comprises a second motor, a second driving gear, a second driven gear and a rotating shaft; the second motor is fixed on the tray, the power output end of the second motor is connected with a second driving gear, the second driving gear is meshed with a second driven gear, the rotating shaft is arranged perpendicular to the tray, the bottom end of the rotating shaft is connected with the second driven gear, the top end of the rotating shaft is fixedly connected with the driven wheel through a driven wheel support, and a pressure sensor is arranged on the driven wheel and used for detecting the pressure of the driven wheel on the inner wall of the pipeline;

the controller is connected with the crawler-type traveling driving device, the first motor, the second motor and the pressure sensor.

2. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of claim 1, wherein the upper end of the driven wheel bracket is U-shaped, and a driven wheel is arranged in the U-shape; the bottom end of the driven wheel bracket is provided with at least one protruding part, the top end of the rotating shaft is provided with at least one groove, the protruding parts of the driven wheel bracket and the grooves of the rotating shaft are matched with each other in a one-to-one correspondence manner, and the height position of the protruding parts in the grooves can be adjusted; the rotating shaft is sleeved with an annular spring, and two ends of the spring are respectively abutted against the driven wheel bracket and the tray.

3. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of claim 1, wherein the traveling driving device comprises a driving motor, and the driving motor drives the track to rotate forward and backward.

4. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of claim 3, wherein the traveling driving device is fixedly provided with a bottom plate through screws, and the left end and the right end of the bottom plate are respectively provided with an L-shaped bracket.

5. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of claim 4, wherein a control box is arranged above the bottom plate, a controller and a power supply are arranged in the control box, and the power supply supplies power to the whole robot.

6. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of claim 1, wherein the screw rod is mounted on the L-shaped bracket through a screw rod supporting seat.

7. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of claim 6, wherein two guide rods are symmetrically arranged on two sides of the screw rod, and the two guide rods are fixed on the L-shaped bracket through guide rod supporting seats.

8. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of claim 7, wherein the first motor is fixedly installed on the lower surface of the horizontal section of the L-shaped bracket, the first driving gear and the first driven gear are installed on the upper surface of the horizontal section, and the first driving gear is located right above the first motor.

9. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of claim 1, wherein the second motor is fixed on the tray, the second driving gear and the second driven gear are located at the bottom of the tray, the second driving gear is opposite to the second motor in the up-down direction, the bottom end of the rotating shaft penetrates through the tray and is connected with the second driven gear at the bottom of the tray, and the rotating shaft is rotatable relative to the tray.

10. The wheel-track combined type pipeline robot of claim 9, wherein the turning angle range of the turning mechanism is-90 ° - +90 °.