Copying meshing driven steel wire rope climbing robot and active brake control method

Abstract

The invention discloses a profiling meshing driven steel wire rope climbing robot and an active brake control method. The robot comprises a split type rack assembly, a driving system, a pressing system and a control system. A concave contour surface and a plurality of meshing convex points distributed according to a spiral track are arranged on the outer circumferential surface of a profiling meshing type concave wheel of the driving system, so that the convex points are accurately embedded into strand gaps of the steel wire rope to form mechanical interlocking transmission, and the problem of slipping in an oil contamination environment is fundamentally solved. The pressing system adopts a floating support with an elastic element and a plurality of pressing wheels, and self-adaptive constant-force clamping is achieved. The control system monitors the motion state in real time through the speed detection module, and the control unit actively triggers the independent braking module to implement emergency braking when recognizing early out-of-control characteristics such as continuous deviation of the speed or abnormal acceleration, so that an accident is restrained in the bud state. According to the invention, mechanical meshing driving without transforming the steel wire rope is realized, and the device has high load capacity, strong environmental adaptability and an active safety protection function.

Description

A wire rope climbing robot driven by contour meshing and an active braking control method Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a wire rope climbing robot, and more particularly to a wire rope climbing robot with contour-following meshing drive and an active braking control method. Background Technology

[0002] Wire ropes are widely used in bridge construction, mining hoisting, high-voltage power transmission, and high-altitude operations as load-bearing and transmission components. Regular inspection, maintenance, cleaning, and even de-icing of these wire ropes in high-altitude, high-risk environments are not only inefficient but also pose significant safety risks when performed manually. Therefore, wire rope climbing robots that can replace manual labor for high-altitude operations have become a research hotspot. Currently, there are two main technical solutions: Solution one is the friction-driven climbing robot, which is the most common driving method for wire rope climbing robots. Its basic structure includes a frame, a drive wheel, a clamping wheel, and a drive motor. The clamping wheel presses the drive wheel tightly against the surface of the wire rope, utilizing the static friction between the drive wheel and the wire rope as the climbing driving force. For example, Chinese invention patent CN108528558A discloses a cable climbing robot that uses a first climbing structure and a second climbing structure arranged opposite each other. The cable is clamped by a clamping mechanism, and climbing is achieved using the drive structure. For example, Chinese invention patent CN114802513A discloses a vertical climbing robot for wind power towers. It uses a drive motor to rotate a friction wheel and a worm gear transmission to achieve vertical movement up and down on the tower wall. However, this friction-driven solution has inherent flaws: slippage cannot be completely eliminated, insufficient utilization of the rope's geometric features, and a contradiction between load capacity and clamping force. Because the wire rope is exposed to the outdoors for extended periods, its surface is easily contaminated with oil, rainwater, frost, or dust. These contaminants significantly reduce the coefficient of friction, leading to insufficient static friction between the drive wheel and the wire rope, causing the robot to slip or even fail completely. Even increasing the clamping force cannot provide stable driving force in oily environments. Furthermore, the inherent spiral strands on the wire rope surface are an important geometric feature, but the friction-driven solution only utilizes the macroscopic surface of the rope, failing to fully utilize the microscopic structure of the interstrand gaps to enhance driving force, resulting in inherent technical defects. The magnitude of the friction force directly depends on the normal pressure provided by the clamping mechanism. To obtain greater driving force to support heavier operating equipment, the clamping force must be increased, but this will increase the robot's energy consumption and cause additional wear and crush damage to the wire rope, creating a technical contradiction that increasing force inevitably leads to increased damage.

[0003] Option two involves chain or toothed belt climbing robots. To address the friction and slippage problem, some existing technologies attempt to use chains or toothed belts that mesh with steel wire ropes. This approach involves mounting specially designed grooved chains or toothed belts on the surface of the steel wire rope, with the robot's drive wheels engaging with the chain / toothed belt via gears. For example, Chinese invention patent CN117087782A discloses a chain-driven pole-climbing robot, which uses pressing blocks on the chain to press the blocks onto the climbing pole via a clamping mechanism, using the chain's cyclic rotation to drive the robot's ascent. Another example is Chinese invention patent CN102605713A, which discloses a biomimetic robot that crawls on bridge cables, employing three sets of crawling trolley mechanisms evenly distributed along the circumference of the frame, driven by bevel gear and worm gear mechanisms.

[0004] However, while this solution addresses the slippage problem to some extent, its application is severely limited. Firstly, it relies on additional structures; specialized chains or toothed belts must be pre-installed on the wire rope, making it unsuitable for direct use on bare ropes. For existing facilities like bridges and mines, adding chains to existing wire ropes requires high-altitude work, resulting in extremely high modification and installation costs, and sometimes even making it impractical. Secondly, it disrupts the original state of the wire rope; the added chains or toothed belts alter its surface condition, affecting the accuracy of inspections (such as flaw detection and corrosion testing). Thirdly, the chains or toothed belts need to be customized based on the wire rope diameter and lay length, making them unsuitable for different specifications, resulting in poor versatility. Often, one robot can only handle one type of wire rope, leading to low equipment utilization.

[0005] Regardless of the drive scheme used, existing robot safety braking systems are mostly passive. They typically employ centrifugal brakes or speed limit switches, meaning braking is only triggered after the robot has fallen and reached a certain speed. This delayed braking method often results in the robot already in a high-speed fall when braking is triggered, requiring a long braking distance from triggering to complete stop, posing a collision risk. In summary, existing technologies have not yet solved the following technical problems: how to achieve stable and reliable mechanical meshing drive using the inherent strand geometry of the wire rope without modifying it, fundamentally solving the slippage problem in oily environments; how to meet high load capacity while avoiding additional damage to the wire rope due to increased clamping force; and how to achieve proactive braking through active prediction and intervention in the very early stages of robot loss of control, avoiding impact damage from high-speed falls. Summary of the Invention

[0006] To address the shortcomings of the aforementioned technologies, this invention provides a wire rope climbing robot with contour-following meshing drive and an active braking control method.

[0007] To solve the above technical problems, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is: a contour-following meshing concave wheel, comprising: a wheel body, the outer circumference of which is provided with a concave contour surface adapted to the radius of the wire rope; a plurality of meshing protrusions, distributed on the concave contour surface according to a helical trajectory; wherein, the arrangement pitch of the plurality of meshing protrusions along the axial direction of the wheel body and the lay pitch and number of strands of the target wire rope satisfy the following proportional relationship: P=L / N ×(1±δ); P represents the arrangement pitch of the plurality of meshing protrusions along the axial direction of the wheel body; L represents the lay pitch of the target wire rope; N represents the number of strands; δ represents the deviation coefficient.

[0008] Furthermore, the helix angle of the spiral trajectory matches the helix angle of the surface strands of the target wire rope, enabling the meshing protrusions to be precisely embedded in the interstrand gaps of the wire rope.

[0009] Furthermore, the engagement protrusion is hemispherical, conical, or cylindrical in shape, and the root diameter of the engagement protrusion is smaller than the width of the gap between the wire rope strands.

[0010] A wire rope climbing robot, characterized in that it comprises: a frame assembly including a left shell and a right shell connected by hinges, the left and right shells being laterally openable and closable; a drive system installed in the left shell, including a drive motor, a drive wheel, a driven wheel, a transmission belt, and a contour-following meshing concave wheel, the output shaft of the drive motor being connected to the drive wheel, the drive wheel being connected to the driven wheel via the transmission belt, and the driven wheel being coaxially connected to the contour-following meshing concave wheel; and a clamping system installed in the right shell, opposite to the drive system, including a floating bracket mounted in the right shell via a linear bearing, and a contour-following meshing concave wheel mounted on the floating bracket. An elastic element is provided between the moving support and the right housing, enabling the contour-following meshing concave wheel to adapt to changes in the wire rope diameter to maintain a constant clamping force. The control system includes a speed detection module, mounted on the frame assembly, for real-time detection of the robot's movement speed relative to the wire rope; a control unit, mounted inside the left or right housing and electrically connected to the speed detection module, for receiving speed signals and determining whether a loss of control has occurred; and a braking module, mounted at the bottom or top of the frame assembly and electrically connected to the control unit, for independently applying emergency clamping braking to the wire rope upon receiving a braking command.

[0011] Furthermore, the left shell of the wire rope climbing robot is provided with a guide groove, and the guide groove has guide openings at the top and bottom of the frame assembly. The inner diameter of the guide opening is adapted to the diameter of the wire rope to limit the radial movement of the wire rope within the frame assembly. The wire rope is located on the center line between the conformal engagement concave wheel of the clamping system and the conformal engagement concave wheel of the drive system that passes through the guide groove.

[0012] Furthermore, there are at least three contour-following meshing concave wheels in the left housing, distributed along the axial direction of the wire rope; the clamping wheel in the right housing is aligned with the contour-following meshing concave wheel one by one, so that each clamping wheel is radially opposite to the corresponding contour-following meshing concave wheel, forming a multi-point support contact trajectory along the axial direction of the wire rope.

[0013] Furthermore, the floating support is installed in the right housing through at least two sets of elastic elements, so that the floating support as a whole can float elastically in the radial direction relative to the right housing; multiple contour-following meshing concave wheels are rotatably installed in the left housing in a fixed position, and float together with the floating support to adapt to changes.

[0014] Furthermore, the speed detection module includes a vision sensor for non-contact detection of the movement speed of the wire rope surface texture. The speed detection module is mounted on the frame assembly and is used to detect the robot's movement speed relative to the wire rope in real time. The control unit is an embedded controller or a programmable logic controller, installed in the left or right housing, and electrically connected to the speed detection module. It is used to receive speed signals and determine whether a loss of control has occurred. The braking module is a cable brake, installed at the bottom or top of the frame assembly. In the non-braking state, it maintains a small gap with the wire rope. When a braking command is received, it independently performs emergency clamping braking on the wire rope.

[0015] A speed feedback-based active braking control method for a wire rope climbing robot is disclosed. The robot's drive system includes a contour-following meshing concave wheel, where the meshing protrusions of the concave wheel are embedded in the spiral strands of the wire rope to form a mechanically interlocked meshing transmission. The method comprises the following steps: S1, using a speed detection module mounted on the frame assembly to detect the robot's speed relative to the wire rope in real time, obtaining a real-time speed value V_actual; S2, the control unit receives the real-time speed value V_actual and, according to… The mechanical meshing characteristics of the contour-following engagement concave pulley and the wire rope are monitored to assess the mechanical interlocking status between the engagement cam and the wire rope strand gaps. S3: Based on the real-time speed value V_actual, the control unit predicts whether the engagement cam is about to disengage from the wire rope strand gaps. When early runaway characteristics of the cam about to disengage are detected, it is determined to be an early runaway state. S4: When an early runaway state is determined, the control unit sends a braking command to the braking module, which is independent of the drive system. The braking module applies emergency clamping brakes to the wire rope, preventing an accident from occurring before the robot experiences a high-speed fall.

[0016] Furthermore, the early loss of control characteristics in step S3 include at least one of the following: continuous speed deviation characteristic: the real-time speed value V_actual continuously exceeds the preset normal working range, and the speed in the downward direction continues to increase; abnormal acceleration characteristic: the real-time acceleration value a_actual calculated based on the real-time speed value V_actual exceeds the preset danger threshold a_danger, and the speed direction is downward; in the active braking step, after the control unit determines that the early loss of control state, it causes the robot to enter a safety lock state that can only be released by manual reset.

[0017] This invention discloses a wire rope climbing robot driven by contour-following meshing and an active braking control method, fundamentally solving the slippage problem. Through contour-following meshing design, friction transmission is transformed into mechanical meshing transmission. The protrusions and the gaps in the wire rope form a physical interlock, and adhesion no longer depends on the coefficient of friction, allowing stable climbing even with oil or water stains on the rope surface. This improves load capacity and transmission efficiency; the upper limit of the driving force of mechanical meshing is much higher than that of friction, thus enabling the robot to carry heavier inspection or operation equipment. Simultaneously, due to the enhanced basic driving force, the requirement for positive pressure on the clamping system can be appropriately reduced, thereby reducing the load on the mechanism and energy consumption, and improving transmission efficiency. It achieves proactive and forward-looking safe braking; transforming passive, delayed braking into active, predictive braking. Through real-time monitoring of the descent speed / acceleration, decisive intervention can be made at the very early stage of loss of control, when the protrusions just show signs of detachment, preventing accidents from occurring in their infancy and avoiding damage to the robot structure and wire rope caused by high-speed impact braking. Highly adaptable to various environments; the adaptive floating clamping system compensates for changes in wire rope diameter and joints, enabling the robot to adapt to different types and wear conditions of wire rope. A non-contact speed detection method is available, further enhancing the system's environmental adaptability. Easy to assemble and disassemble, safe to operate; the split-frame structure allows the robot to open and close laterally at any position on the wire rope, easily engaging or disengaging without needing to thread it through the rope end, greatly improving the convenience and safety of on-site use. Attached Figure Description

[0018] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the wire rope climbing robot of the present invention.

[0019] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the unfolded wire rope climbing robot of the present invention.

[0020] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the structure inside the left shell of the wire rope climbing robot of the present invention.

[0021] Figure 4 is a partial enlarged view and schematic diagram of the principle of the conformal meshing concave wheel and wire rope of the present invention.

[0022] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram showing that the pitch of the meshing protrusions along the wheel axis of the present invention corresponds to the following ratios of the lay length and number of strands of the target wire rope.

[0023] In the diagram: 11. Left housing; 12. Right housing; 13. Hinge; 14. Lock; 15. Guide opening; 21. Contour-type meshing concave wheel; 211. Wheel body; 212. Concave profile surface; 213. Meshing protrusion; 22. Drive motor; 23. Driving wheel; 24. Driven wheel; 25. Transmission belt; 30. Pressing system; 31. Floating bracket; 33. Elastic element; 34. Linear bearing; 40. Wire rope; 41. Spiral strand; 50. Control system; 51. Speed ​​detection module; 52. Control unit; 53. Braking module. Detailed Implementation

[0025] The present invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0026] As shown in Figures 1-3, the frame assembly includes a left housing 11 and a right housing 12 connected by a hinge 13. These two housings can be opened and closed laterally, forming a closable, split structure. When closed, they are secured by a latch 14, creating a closed working space where the tensioned wire rope 40 can be quickly engaged or disengaged. Guide openings 15 are provided at the top and bottom of the frame assembly. The inner diameter of the guide openings 15 is adapted to the diameter of the wire rope 40, used to limit the radial runout of the wire rope within the machine body, ensuring that the wire rope remains on the centerline of the subsequent drive wheel and pressure wheel.

[0027] The drive system is installed inside the left housing 11. Its core component is the contour-following meshing concave wheel 21, and it also includes a drive motor 22, a driving wheel 23, a driven wheel 24, and a transmission belt 25. The output shaft of the drive motor 22 is connected to the driving wheel 23, and the driving wheel 23 is connected to the driven wheel 24 through the transmission belt 25. The driven wheel 24 is coaxially connected to the contour-following meshing concave wheel 21, thereby driving the contour-following meshing concave wheel 21 to rotate. The contour-following meshing concave wheel 21 at this location is the drive wheel.

[0028] The clamping system is installed inside the right housing 12, opposite to the drive system. It includes a floating bracket 31, three clamping rollers in this embodiment, and elastic elements 33. The floating bracket 31 is radially movable within the right housing 12 via a linear bearing 34. A contoured engagement concave roller 21 is mounted on the floating bracket 31, serving as the clamping roller. The elastic elements 33, such as compression springs, gas springs, or rubber pads, are positioned between the floating bracket 31 and the right housing 12, providing a continuous lateral thrust to the floating bracket 31, causing the clamping rollers to tightly press the wire rope 40 against the contoured engagement concave roller 21. This design allows the clamping system to adapt to minor changes in the wire rope diameter, localized wear, or splices, maintaining a constant clamping force and preventing overload or slippage.

[0029] The control system 50 includes a speed detection module 51, a control unit 52, and a braking module 53. The speed detection module 51 is mounted on the frame assembly and is used to detect the robot's speed relative to the wire rope 40 in real time. It can be an encoder driven wheel that rolls in contact with the wire rope, or a vision sensor used for non-contact detection of the rope's surface texture and movement speed. The control unit 52, such as an embedded controller or a programmable logic controller (PLC), is installed in either the left housing 11 or the right housing 12, preferably in the left housing. It is electrically connected to the speed detection module 51 and is used to receive speed signals and run a preset control algorithm to determine whether the robot is about to or has already lost control.

[0030] The braking module 53 is an emergency braking device independent of the drive system, installed at the bottom or top of the frame assembly. In the non-braking state, it maintains a slight gap with the wire rope 40; upon receiving a braking command from the control unit 52, it can independently apply emergency clamping braking to the wire rope 40. The braking module 53 is preferably a cable brake or an electromagnetic clamping mechanism to ensure rapid and reliable braking.

[0031] The core inventive point of this invention lies in the unique design of the contour-following meshing concave wheel 21, as shown in Figures 4 and 5. The outer circumferential surface of the wheel body 211 of this concave wheel 21 is provided with a concave contour surface 212 that is adapted to the radius of the wire rope, thereby increasing the contact area with the wire rope. On the concave contour surface 212, a plurality of meshing protrusions 213 are distributed according to a specific helical trajectory.

[0032] The core geometric parameter relationship is that the arrangement pitch P of multiple meshing cams 213 along the wheel axis and the lay length L and number of strands N of the target wire rope 40 satisfy the following proportional relationship: P=L / N ×(1±δ); where δ is the allowable deviation coefficient, usually 0≤δ≤0.1, to cover manufacturing tolerances and slight wear of the rope surface.

[0033] Steel wire ropes are typically made of six strands of steel wire twisted around a core, and their surfaces inevitably have helical gaps between the strands. As shown in Figure 5, the axial distance between adjacent gaps (from position A to position B) is the lay length L. The contour-following meshing concave pulley 21 of this invention cleverly utilizes this inherent geometric feature of steel wire ropes. When the axial pitch P (arc length) is equal to or close to L / N within the error range, the arrangement of the protrusions 213 on the surface of the concave pulley achieves phase matching with the helical pattern of the steel wire rope strand gaps. This means that during the rotation of the contour-following meshing concave pulley 21 and its pressing against the steel wire rope 40, as shown in Figure 4, the meshing protrusions 213 will not press against the top of the protrusions on the steel wire strands, but will precisely and sequentially embed into the helical strand gaps 41 in constantly changing positions, forming a mechanical interlock between the pulley and the rope.

[0034] This design fundamentally transforms traditional sheave-rope friction transmission into a mechanical meshing transmission similar to gears and racks. Even if the wire rope surface is contaminated with oil, water, or ice, the meshing protrusions 213 are physically embedded in the grooves of the strands, rather than relying solely on surface friction, thus providing significant anti-slip resistance. The driving force of this mechanical interlocking has an upper limit far greater than static friction, thereby completely solving the slippage problem caused by a decrease in the coefficient of friction.

[0035] Meanwhile, the role of this mechanical structure in the active braking control method is another core aspect of this invention. The unique mechanical structure design provides an ideal physical basis and unique advantages for the speed feedback-based active braking control method. Together, they achieve an extremely high level of safety protection.

[0036] Providing a physical basis for early prediction, in traditional pure friction-driven systems, slippage often occurs instantaneously, with the transition from normal climbing to complete stall being extremely short, leaving very limited reaction time for the control system. In the mechanical meshing drive of this invention, during normal robot operation, the meshing protrusion 213 and the tread gap are in a stable interlocked state. Loss of control often begins when the meshing protrusion 213 disengages from the tread gap. This disengagement process is not instantaneous but is accompanied by minute relative displacement and velocity fluctuations, which can be captured by the highly sensitive velocity detection module 51. Therefore, the control system can identify early loss of control characteristics based on minute anomalies in the velocity signal, in the very early stages when the protrusion is about to completely disengage and the robot has not yet begun a high-speed fall, thus gaining valuable time for proactive intervention.

[0037] The multi-point clamping system design ensures stable robot posture and uniform meshing between the drive wheel and the wire rope during normal operation. When the braking module 53 is triggered, this stable posture and constant clamping force guarantee that the braking module can clamp the wire rope in a stable and predictable contact state, avoiding uneven braking or braking failure caused by robot deflection or vibration. Simultaneously, because the active braking intervenes at an early stage, the relative speed and impact kinetic energy are far less than those of passive braking after a high-speed fall, resulting in minimal damage to the robot structure and wire rope, and a smoother and more reliable braking process. The contour-following meshing drive itself provides extremely high anti-slip capability through mechanical interlocking, which is the first layer of safety protection. The speed feedback-based active braking system constitutes a second layer of active safety protection, independent of the drive system. These two mechanisms are independent yet work together, ensuring the reliability of the drive system's normal operation.

[0038] This embodiment uses the example of climbing a common six-strand steel wire rope 40 with a diameter of 20mm, combined with a specific example of the manufacturing and parameter design of a contour-following meshing concave pulley. The lay length L of this steel wire rope is 120mm, and the number of strands N=6.

[0039] According to the core formula of this invention, the axial arrangement pitch P of the contour-following meshing concave wheel 21 is designed as: P=L / N=120mm / 6=20mm; here, δ=0 is taken to achieve optimal matching; the wheel body 211 of the concave wheel 21 is made of high-strength wear-resistant alloy steel, and its outer circumferential surface is machined with a concave profile surface 212 with a curvature radius of 10.2mm, slightly larger than the radius of the steel wire rope by 10mm, to form a good fit. Subsequently, on the concave profile surface 212, a five-axis linkage CNC machine tool is used to machine uniformly distributed hemispherical meshing protrusions 213 according to a helical trajectory. The helix angle of this helical trajectory is precisely matched with the helix angle of the surface strand pattern of the steel wire rope 40. The axial distance between adjacent protrusions 213 is strictly controlled at 20mm. The root diameter of the protrusion 213 is designed to be 2mm, which is smaller than the typical width of the gap between six strands of steel wire rope, approximately 2.5 or 3mm, to ensure that it can be smoothly embedded.

[0040] The contour-following meshing concave pulley 21 manufactured using this method, when observed under a microscope, shows a perfect phase match between the arrangement of its protrusions 213 and the strand pattern of a standard steel wire rope. Subsequent bench tests demonstrated that on a steel wire rope coated with a large amount of grease, a conventional knurled pulley begins to slip at a torque of 10 N·m, while the contour-following meshing concave pulley of this embodiment did not exhibit visible relative slippage even when a torque of 50 N·m was applied; only slight elastic deformation of the protrusions and strands was observed, verifying its strong mechanical meshing capability.

[0041] Using examples of the assembly and operation of a wire rope climbing robot, refer to Figures 1-3 to assemble a complete wire rope climbing robot.

[0042] First, the contour-following meshing concave wheel 21 and driven wheel 24 manufactured in Example 1 are installed in the left housing 11 through bearing seats. The drive motor 22 is fixed, and its output shaft is fitted with the driving wheel 23, which is connected to the driven wheel 24 through the synchronous belt 25 to form a drive system.

[0043] Inside the right housing 12, two parallel linear bearings 34 are installed, and the floating bracket 31 is slidably mounted on the linear bearings 34. Three clamping rollers are evenly installed axially on the floating bracket 31. Between the back of the floating bracket 31 and the inner wall of the right housing 12, three sets of pre-compressed springs are installed as elastic elements 33, forming a clamping system. The left housing 11 and the right housing 12 are connected by a rear hinge 13.

[0044] At the top of the frame assembly, a driven encoder wheel, in contact with the wire rope, is installed as a speed detection module 51. Inside the left housing 11, an STM32 embedded control board is installed as a control unit 52 and is electrically connected to the encoder 51. At the bottom of the frame assembly, a normally open cable brake is installed as a braking module 53, whose grippers maintain a gap of approximately 1 mm with the wire rope 40 when not in operation. The output of the control unit 52 is electrically connected to the control terminal of the cable brake 53.

[0045] In use, unlock 14, open the left and right housings 12 around the hinge 13, insert the robot into the tensioned wire rope 40 from the side, and guide the wire rope 40 into the top and bottom guide ports 15. Close the housing and fasten 14. At this time, the floating bracket 31 of the clamping system, under the action of the spring 33, presses the three clamping wheels tightly against the wire rope 40, while the other side of the wire rope 40 is tightly pressed into the concave contour surface 212 of the contour-following meshing concave wheel 21 inside the left housing 11. Since the arrangement pitch of the protrusions 213 matches the strand gap of the wire rope, multiple protrusions 213 are simultaneously embedded in the corresponding strand gaps, forming a stable initial meshing state.

[0046] The drive motor 22 is started, and power is transmitted to the contour-following meshing concave pulley 21 via belt drive. Under the action of meshing force, the robot climbs steadily along the steel cable 40. When the diameter of the steel cable becomes slightly thicker or there is a joint, the floating support 31 will compress the spring 33 and move backward along the linear bearing 34, adaptively making room to keep the clamping force basically constant and ensure the continuity of meshing.

[0047] In conjunction with an embodiment of the active braking control method, in this embodiment, the control unit 52 is configured to execute the following active braking control logic.

[0048] First, the normal operating speed V_set is preset in the control unit 52, for example, 0.5 m / s, the allowable fluctuation range ΔV is for example, 0.1 m / s, and the dangerous acceleration threshold a_danger is for example, 2 m / s², which is approximately 0.2g.

[0049] Step S1 Real-time detection: When the robot is running, the encoder 51 detects the robot's speed V_actual relative to the wire rope 40 in real time at a sampling frequency of 100Hz and transmits it to the control unit 52.

[0050] Step S2 Status Monitoring: The control unit 52 receives the speed signal and performs filtering. At this time, since the contour-following engagement concave pulley 21 and the wire rope 40 are in a stable mechanical interlocking state, the speed signal V_actual usually fluctuates smoothly within the range of [V_set ± ΔV]. By monitoring minute changes in V_actual, the control unit 52 can indirectly sense the engagement state of the convex point 213 and the strand gap.

[0051] Step S3 Early runaway prediction: Assume that due to some reason, such as sudden load change or protrusion wear, one of the protrusions 213 begins to show a tendency to detach from the joint. This microscopic detachment process will cause a small, instantaneous relative slippage. This slippage is captured by the high-sensitivity encoder 51 and reflected as abnormal fluctuations in V_actual. The control unit 52 identifies any of the following early runaway characteristics: Characteristic A: Continuous velocity deviation: V_actual continuously increases from 0.52m / s to 0.65m / s within 50ms, and the direction is downward, exceeding the normal range of [0.5±0.1]m / s, and showing an accelerating growth trend.

[0052] Feature B: Abnormal acceleration: Without acceleration command, the real-time acceleration a_actual calculated based on V_actual exceeds the preset danger threshold of 2m / s², and the velocity direction is downward.

[0053] Once any of the above characteristics are detected, the control unit 52 immediately determines that the system has entered an early loss of control state. This process occurs at the stage when the bump 213 has just begun to detach and the robot's overall speed has only increased slightly, rather than after the high-speed fall.

[0054] Step S4: Active Braking and Safety Locking: Upon detecting an early loss of control state, the control unit 52 immediately outputs a high-level trigger signal to the bottom cable brake 53. The brake 53 has an instantaneous response time of <50ms, and its grippers, under the action of electromagnetic or spring force, clamp the wire rope 40 with the maximum preset clamping force. Since the robot's relative speed is still very low at this time, the braking process is smooth and effective, and the robot may be brought to a stable stop within tens of milliseconds and a sliding distance of less than 1 cm. Subsequently, the control unit 52 enters the safety lock state, cuts off the power to the drive motor 22, and maintains the clamping state of the brake 53 until a manual reset command is received. This effectively prevents the robot from experiencing a catastrophic high-speed fall, protecting the equipment and personnel safety.

[0055] This embodiment fully demonstrates the synergistic effect of the mechanical structure and control method of the present invention: the stability of the conformal meshing drive provides the control system with a clear early characteristic signal, and the control system uses this valuable lead time to achieve proactive intervention and containment of accidents, raising safety to a new level.

[0056] The above embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the examples given above. Any changes, modifications, additions or substitutions made by those skilled in the art within the scope of the technical solution of the present invention are also within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A contour-following meshing concave wheel, characterized in that, include: The wheel body has a concave profile surface on its outer circumference that matches the radius of the wire rope; multiple meshing protrusions are distributed on the concave profile surface according to a helical trajectory; wherein, the arrangement pitch of the multiple meshing protrusions along the axial direction of the wheel body satisfies the following proportional relationship with the lay pitch and number of strands of the target wire rope: P=L / N ×(1±δ); P represents the arrangement pitch of the multiple meshing protrusions along the axial direction of the wheel body; L represents the lay pitch of the target wire rope; N represents the number of strands; δ represents the deviation coefficient.

2. The contour-following meshing concave wheel according to claim 1, characterized in that: The helix angle of the spiral trajectory matches the helix angle of the surface strand pattern of the target wire rope, so that the meshing protrusion can be precisely embedded in the interstrand gap of the wire rope.

3. The contour-following meshing concave wheel according to claim 1, characterized in that: The engagement protrusion is hemispherical, conical, or cylindrical in shape, and the root diameter of the engagement protrusion is smaller than the width of the gap between the wire rope strands.

4. A wire rope climbing robot, characterized in that, include: The rack assembly includes a left housing and a right housing connected by hinges, and the left housing and the right housing can be opened and closed laterally; The drive system, installed within the left housing, includes a drive motor, a drive wheel, a driven wheel, a transmission belt, and a contour-following engagement concave wheel. The output shaft of the drive motor is connected to the drive wheel, and the drive wheel is connected to the driven wheel via the transmission belt. The driven wheel and the contour-following engagement concave wheel are coaxially connected. The clamping system, installed within the right housing and positioned opposite the drive system, includes a floating bracket mounted within the right housing via a linear bearing and a contour-following engagement concave wheel mounted on the floating bracket. An elastic element is provided between the floating bracket and the right housing to allow the contour-following engagement concave wheel to engage. The meshing concave pulley can adapt to changes in the wire rope diameter to maintain a constant clamping force; the control system includes a speed detection module mounted on the frame assembly for real-time detection of the robot's movement speed relative to the wire rope; it also includes a control unit mounted inside the left or right housing and electrically connected to the speed detection module for receiving speed signals and determining whether a loss of control has occurred; and it also includes a braking module mounted at the bottom or top of the frame assembly and electrically connected to the control unit for independently applying emergency clamping braking to the wire rope upon receiving a braking command.

5. The wire rope climbing robot according to claim 4, characterized in that: The left shell of the wire rope climbing robot is provided with a guide groove. The guide groove has guide openings at the top and bottom of the frame assembly. The inner diameter of the guide opening is adapted to the diameter of the wire rope to limit the radial movement of the wire rope within the frame assembly. The wire rope is located on the center line between the conformal engagement concave wheel of the clamping system and the conformal engagement concave wheel of the drive system that passes through the guide groove.

6. The wire rope climbing robot according to claim 4, characterized in that: The left housing contains at least three contour-following meshing concave wheels, distributed along the axial direction of the wire rope; the right housing contains a clamping wheel that is aligned with the contour-following meshing concave wheels one by one, so that each clamping wheel is radially opposite to the corresponding contour-following meshing concave wheel, forming a multi-point support contact trajectory along the axial direction of the wire rope.

7. The wire rope climbing robot according to claim 4, characterized in that: The floating support is installed in the right housing by at least two sets of elastic elements, so that the floating support as a whole can float elastically in the radial direction relative to the right housing; a plurality of contour-following meshing concave wheels are rotatably installed in the left housing at fixed positions and float together with the floating support to adapt to changes.

8. The wire rope climbing robot according to claim 4, characterized in that: The speed detection module includes a vision sensor for non-contact detection of the movement speed of the surface texture of the wire rope. The speed detection module is mounted on the frame assembly and is used to detect the robot's movement speed relative to the wire rope in real time. The control unit is an embedded controller or a programmable logic controller, installed in the left or right housing, and electrically connected to the speed detection module. It is used to receive speed signals and determine whether a loss of control has occurred. The braking module is a cable brake, installed at the bottom or top of the frame assembly. In the non-braking state, it maintains a small gap with the wire rope. When a braking command is received, it independently performs emergency clamping braking on the wire rope.

9. A speed feedback-based active braking control method for a wire rope climbing robot, applied to the wire rope climbing robot according to any one of claims 4 to 8, wherein the drive system of the wire rope climbing robot includes a contour-following meshing concave wheel, the meshing protrusion of the contour-following meshing concave wheel being embedded in the helical strands of the wire rope to form a mechanically interlocked meshing transmission, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: S1. The speed detection module installed on the frame assembly detects the robot's movement speed relative to the wire rope in real time, obtaining a real-time speed value V_actual; S2. The control unit receives the real-time speed value V_actual and monitors the mechanical interlocking state between the meshing protrusion and the wire rope strands based on the mechanical meshing characteristics of the contour-following engagement concave pulley and the wire rope; S3. Based on the real-time speed value V_actual, the control unit predicts whether the meshing protrusion is about to disengage from the wire rope strands. When an early runaway characteristic of the protrusion about to disengage is identified, it is determined to be an early runaway state; S4. When an early runaway state is determined, the control unit issues a braking command to a braking module independently set up in the drive system. The braking module performs emergency clamping braking on the wire rope, preventing the accident from occurring before the robot falls at high speed.

10. The active braking control method based on speed feedback for a wire rope climbing robot according to claim 9, characterized in that, The early runaway characteristics in step S3 include at least one of the following: continuous velocity deviation: The real-time speed value V_actual continuously exceeds the preset normal operating range, and the speed in the downward direction continues to increase; acceleration Abnormal characteristics: The real-time acceleration value a_actual calculated based on the real-time velocity value V_actual exceeds the preset danger threshold a_danger, and the velocity direction is downward; In the active braking step, after the control unit determines that it is an early loss of control state, it puts the robot into a safety lock state that can only be released by manual reset.

Images