E-005

A Mechatronic Concept for a Sewer Inspection Robot

Authors: V. Kepplin, K.U. Scholl, K. Berns
Affiliation: Forschungszentrum Informatik, Haid-und-Neu-Str. 10-14, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

Abstract
In this paper a multijoined robot for sewer inspection tasks is presented. While other sewer inspection robots usually are one-link vehicles remote controlled by a cable, the multijoint robot is able to overcome obstacles like socket displacements and to branch off in the case of pipes joining the sewer and therefore has an increased operating scope. As a consequence of the wireless approach the robot has to meet two basic requirements, energy autarky and autonomous behaviour control, i.e. a camera based moving strategy or path planning related to a sewage model. The objective of a selfcontained sewer inspection robot requires a robust mechatronic concept, which is described in this paper, focussing on the computer architecture and the electronic components.

Volker Kepplin
kepplin@fzi.de