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The track is specialized and new, the application scenarios are high-risk, and the working environment will pose a threat to personal health or safety. The efficiency of using manpower is too low, and it is eager to realize automated operations. The technical threshold for the research and development of related automation equipment is relatively high, and few companies are involved. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
This has become the status quo of “cleaning and maintenance” of equipment in most special industries in my country.
▍Automated “cleaning and maintenance” has become a new rigid demand
In recent years, with the rapid development of my country’s economy and the effective advancement of the innovation-driven development strategy, the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure led by industry, agriculture, and service industries has been accelerating. However, the automation and intelligent upgrading of high-risk operations in key industries such as electric power and natural gas have not progressed smoothly. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
For example, the inspection and maintenance of ocean-going ships in the shipbuilding industry, the cleaning and maintenance of oil and gas storage tanks that store oil, natural gas, chemicals and other resources in the petrochemical industry, the rust removal and maintenance of wind power towers that are an important part of wind power plants in the power industry, and the patrol of emergency equipment in nuclear power plants an examination……
Many high-risk special jobs are in urgent need of robotic equipment that realizes automated and intelligent operations to replace manual operations, improve operation efficiency, and realize the transformation and upgrading of operation methods. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
Although the robot industry has developed rapidly in recent years, robots engaged in large-scale steel façade structures are not common.
In order to investigate the reason behind it, the robot lecture hall specially invited Dr. Zhang Xuan, the R&D manager of the special robot company Peihebifang. He believes that the reasons for the slow development of the industry are the following three points:
First, the demand market occupies many tracks, the operation methods are diverse, and the operation requirements are scattered. If relevant robotics companies want to enter this track, their product design must have a wide range of versatility, can adapt to different industries, switch different job “types”, and have good product versatility. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
Second, the technical content of the operating equipment is high, and it is difficult to get started. At present, the industries that have a high voice for related robot products, most of their high-risk special operation scenes are facade structures. Although my country’s ground robot system has matured, the development from the ground to the facade is not as simple as it seems. Although the mechanism works in a similar way, there are still many challenges and difficulties in the overall design and implementation of the product.
Third, special industries have a high threshold for “entering the market” and a long discrete cycle of operations. Special industries such as petroleum, chemical industry, and electric power often have the characteristics of long production lines, extensive coverage, long discrete operation cycles, and high-risk operating environments. The selection and requirements of operating equipment are extremely cautious and strict.
▍Where is the “difficulty” of the facade robot?
What are the differences between the design and development of ground robots and facade robots? What are the “difficulties” of facade robots mainly used for high-risk special work? Dr. Zhang Xuan, the R&D manager of He He He Fang, mentioned to the robot lecture hall that there are mainly the following difficulties to be overcome: GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
First of all, in the “walking” mode, the ground robot can be legged, wheeled, crawler or other forms, and the different forms of its “legs and feet” only affect its ability to adapt to the terrain. In order to achieve freedom of movement in vertical or semi-vertical environments, a façade robot must master the basic walking skills – wall climbing.
Similar to the Spider-Man in the film and television works, which relies on the spider silk launcher to launch the spider silk to be adsorbed on the building to assist in free movement between buildings, the facade robot must also rely on the adsorption device if it wants to climb the wall. The adsorption device of the façade operation robot must not only ensure that the robot body walks on the façade, but also must bear the weight of various operation modules loaded on the robot body. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
Permanent magnet adsorption technology is born to solve this problem. For facade robots, the level of permanent magnet adsorption technology directly affects the stability of its facade operations.
Dr. Zhang Xuan, R&D manager of Hehehefang, introduced: “To realize the ‘normal walking’ of the robot on the facade structure, it can actually be achieved by simply stacking magnets, but the simple number of magnets superimposes the robot while giving the robot an adsorption force. It will also increase the weight of the robot body, and if the body weight increases, more magnets need to be added to increase the adsorption force… This cycle cannot fundamentally solve this problem.”
This involves the concept of load-to-weight ratio, that is, the ratio of the load to the self-weight of the robot under the premise of ensuring the normal operation of the robot. The larger the load-to-weight ratio of the robot, the more stable and safe the adsorption is. The level of permanent magnet adsorption technology determines the level of the robot’s automatic load ratio. For enterprises, the use of light-weight, small-volume magnets to achieve high-performance adsorption involves the establishment of medium conduction mechanisms, magnetic field distribution, static magnetic field analysis, magnetic induction intensity analysis, and smart machine utilization planning methods, which have high technical thresholds.
The second is the adaptability of the mobile configuration. Compared with ground robots, facade robots have stricter requirements on the body configuration. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
In the most commonly used application scenarios of oil and gas storage tanks, ships, and electric power operation and maintenance of facade robots, they need to face different equipment with different curvatures such as spherical, cylindrical, and elliptical shapes. One or two meters, and the larger ones may reach 50-60 meters, which requires that the structure of the robot must have sufficient adaptability to cope with curved surfaces of different curvatures.
In addition, when the façade robot is working on the curved surface, it has to face different obstacles such as agglomeration, rust, welding seam, etc. How to ensure the robot has sufficient obstacle-surmounting ability while realizing the operation module fit and maintain low control difficulty And high work efficiency also requires continuous experimentation in the process of robot development.
Finally, high-risk special operations also put forward relatively high requirements for the protection of facade robots.
As one of the main categories of special robots, facade robots are mainly engaged in high-risk special operations such as anti-corrosion inspection of facade steel structures. , radiation resistance and other diverse requirements.
The diverse and high requirements of the operating environment pose challenges to the research and development of robot products. At the same time, facing the requirements of different operating environments in different industries, the R&D team of enterprises must have sufficient technical accumulation and industry experience to flexibly respond to the “customization” needs of different customers. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
Based on the above difficulties, most companies that want to get involved in the research and development of high-risk special operation robots are “dissuaded” by their high difficulty when they “get started”.
▍ Less than two years after its establishment, orders received “soft hands”
A special robot company from Tianjin has been established for less than two years, but it has launched anti-corrosion robots for high-risk special operations such as rust removal, painting, cleaning, and testing of large-scale equipment in petrochemical, electric power, ships, bridges and other industries. It has a variety of products such as ship-operating robots and small robots, and has established cooperative relations with many leading enterprises such as PetroChina, China National Nuclear Corporation, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, and Datang Wind Power.
Under the background that the research and development of robotic equipment in the field of high-risk special operations is generally difficult and the progress is slow, how did Bihebifang, which has been established for less than two years, achieve such high productivity? And why can we establish cooperation with many leading companies? GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
The high-efficiency and high-yield R&D of Hehehebei’s products is inseparable from the strong R&D team behind it.
It is understood that most of the R&D team members of Hehebifang are from the innovation team of Hebei University of Technology “Robots for Service in Special Environments”. Research on its robotic equipment.
The team’s research and development started with a multi-configuration mobile mechanism and gradually formed a ground-integrated multi-directional intelligent inspection system. With the continuous improvement of the ground system, the research focus of the research and development team has gradually focused on the frontier development trend of research and development – the research and development of facade robots. From the ground to the facade, from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, the R&D team of Bihebifang has accumulated profound R&D experience and technical achievements in the field of ground robots and facade robots.
On the basis of the team’s R&D experience and technical achievements, the special robot products of Hehe Hefang are developed according to the existing market demand and different scene requirements, thus forming today’s all-round multi-functional product system. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
▍The “hard” strength of the products behind the “continuous” large orders
When cooperating with customers, the advantages of customized “transformation” in a short time and quick response are very obvious. For various tasks in different fields, how does he and the other achieve “quick response”?
In this regard, Dr. Zhang Xuan, R&D manager of Hehehefang, said: “On the one hand, it is because the modular design of our products enables more functions and greater adaptability, and on the other hand, it is due to our technological leadership.”
In terms of “wall-climbing” technology, he and he have invested a lot of energy in the improvement of permanent magnet adsorption technology and adsorption modules. Compared with the 1:1 load-to-weight ratio of similar products, it has achieved great progress in technology.
In terms of the robot body, the products of Hehehefang have basically matured after many experiments and update iterations. In most applications, the robot body does not need to be re-designed, and only needs to communicate with customers on the operation process. Improved Design.
In terms of product design, all product designs of Hehe Hefang adopt a modular design scheme, and the entire mechanical structure is disassembled into different modules to be designed separately. Although this brings great difficulty to product development, the entire robot is integrated. The method of zero and simplified complexity enables the team to disassemble the diverse needs of customers when facing different projects, and break them down individually, helping the team to easily respond to the complex and diverse needs of customers and better grasp the essence of the problem. Quick solution.
At the same time, the modular design of the robot also provides a great help for product maintenance and work efficiency improvement. In the actual construction process, the response speed is effectively improved and the maintenance time is shortened. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
In terms of product strength improvement, he and the other have taken multiple measures simultaneously. Through the modular design of a series of operation processes such as cleaning, rust removal, painting, grinding, and polishing, robots can replace manual work to complete more “work types”; accumulation and Explore different process parameters and build a process database; small robots achieve miniaturization, light weight, and portability, and strive to achieve comprehensive product functions, efficient operation, and diversification of operating objects.
▍Conclusion
With the gradual deepening of China’s economic transformation and upgrading, special robots represented by wall-climbing robots, as the main force to replace dangerous human operations, will also usher in the spring.
However, as far as the current industry development is concerned, due to the high technical threshold, the number of companies involved in this field is still very limited. Many companies or university teams either lack technology or industrialization experience, are still in the wait-and-see stage, and lack the courage to enter the game. As an excellent case of the industrialization and transformation of the scientific research results of the school team, He He He Fang has undoubtedly given the courage to enter the game for those companies and teams that are still in the lingering stage. GS Approved Manufacturer of stainless steel wholesale
