Pipe-Climbing Robot Based on a Novel Mecanum Wheel

Wheeled pipe-climbing robots, with advantages such as lightweight and compact size, show significant potential for hazardous working environments like high-altitude pipeline inspection. To enhance the robot's flexibility and obstacle-avoidance capability, this paper proposes a novel wheeled locomotion mechanism for traversing the outer walls of pipes, enabling obstacle negotiation and avoidance. Traditional and novel design methods were employed to develop Mecanum wheels of identical dimensions, with Hertz contact theory applied to analyze the maximum contact pressure under both conditions. The results indicate that the novel Mecanum wheel exhibits lower contact pressure under the same size and external load, demonstrating its superior suitability for this robotic configuration. The findings of this study can provide a foundation for the subsequent structural optimization of the robot.