Study On Magnetic Attracting Underwater Wheel-tracked Welding Robot Systems Prototype

The wheel-tracked welding robot is a new-style industrial robot. In this paper, dynamic analyses on the virtual prototype of such kind of robot are conducted and the specified seam-tracking performances are carried out based on the collaborative simulation technology.A mechanical design scheme for the underwater robot is presented based on the simulations and the seal of robot shafts and slider are also discussed.In this paper, the distribution of magnetic fields around the magnetic unit is studied by FEM method. The magnetic attraction forces between the magnetic unit and the work pieces when the robot is moving are analyzed in order to give useful design guidelines for the virtual prototype. The magnetic fields around the magnetic unit in the air and water are both calculated and measured. The field distributions are compared, which will also give useful information on the design of magnetic attracting underwater vehicle systems.The virtual prototype of robot is built up. Firstly, the geometric model is built by a 3-D modeling software Pro/E. Then, some simple constrains between the rigid bodies of prototype are defined and the model is shared with Adams by interface module Mechanism/Pro, some sophisticate constraints are accomplished in Adams/View. At last, the prototype is validated by applying certain motion on the left and right driving wheels.After that, the Machinery electron control simulations are performed on the virtual prototype. The diagram describing mechanical behaviors can be exported from Adams to the Matlab/Simulink toolbox where the system control flowchart of the robot is built. The straight and bias seam tracking by controlling the two back wheels and the slider are realized by a PID controller. Therefore, the practical control algorithm of the robot prototype can be built up based on the abovementioned design scheme.Some experiments are conducted to analyze the kinetic characteristics of a physics robot. From the comparisons between the experimental results and the simulation results, it is shown that the simulations on the virtual prototype presented in this paper are reliable and instructive as well.