Design of Swing Arm Crawler Robot for Variable Cross-section Pipes Operation

There are a large number of variable cross-section pipes in the building ventilation system, and the pipe robots are usually designed for a single cross-section shape, which makes it difficult for their support and drive mechanisms to adapt effectively when the cross-section changes. In this paper, a swing arm crawler robot for variable cross-section pipes is proposed. Through the swing arm module, the robot can actively adjust its support force with the pipe wall, which solves the problem that the robot can only climb variable cross-section pipes with a limited range of inclination angles. Through the deformation module, the contact efficiency between the robot and the pipe with variable curvature can be improved, which solves the problem that the robot can only adapt to a single cross-section shape pipe. Finally, simulation and experiments were performed, and it has superior mobility inside variable cross-section pipes compared with existing robots.