Abstract: The traditional manual inspection of bridge cables has drawbacks such as low detection efficiency and accuracy,as well as safety concerns. The existing wheeled cable inspection robots till limited by pay load capacity,obstacle-crossing ability,light weight structure,and easy disassembly and assembly,which obstruction its current application capabilities and on-site operational efficiency improvements. A wheeled robot equipped with an enhanced driving system was proposed which comprising four U-shaped wheels and dual engines,enabling to conduct cable surface defect detection under complex conditions. Additionally,models were established to describe the robot′s normal climbing and obstacle-crossing behaviors. The climbing ability of the robot was evaluated through in door and field trials under various conditions. Finally,with the specially designed driving system,the robot can carry pay load of 6.8 kg and driving wheel overcome obstacles up to 6.3 mm in height,and perform well in on-site applications on three bridges,can climb on complex cable surfaces such as inclined,dent,protrusion,and storm line. Further more,field applications on real bridges strongly supported the effectiveness of the proposed enhanced driving system.

Key words: cable inspection robot, cable inspection, obstacle crossing, enhanced drive system, static analysis