A Ceiling Mobile Robot for Exploring Corrugated Shipping Container

In this article, a mobile robot equipped with magnetic tracks was developed to explore the corrugated ceilings of shipping containers. To address instability caused by uneven surfaces, we designed magnetic auxiliary wheels based on static force analysis and finite-element method simulations. These auxiliary wheels facilitate the robot’s ability to steer, enabling both translational and rotational movements to any location on the ceiling. Experimental performance evaluations show that the robot can achieve a linear speed faster than 0.1 m/s while carrying a load of 30 kg, which is 1.86 times its own weight. Moreover, the robot can rotate beyond 23° at over 8.4 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${{\ }^ \circ }/\mathrm{s}$</tex-math></inline-formula> with a 15-kg load and move diagonally on the corrugated ceiling. We also demonstrate that the robot can navigate to an arbitrary target point on a real 40-ft shipping container ceiling using a kinematic model-based algorithm. This confirms the feasibility of applying the robot in actual shipping container environments and supports its potential for future autonomous operation.