Bio-inspired articulated mechanism for confined space industrial applications
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Date
2025-10-17
Authors
Τζιρτζιλάκη, Νίκη
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Abstract
Industrial automation has played a pivotal role towards the improvement of productivity, efficiency, working conditions, ergonomics and reduction of health hazards. While a large portion of industrial sectors and processes have or can be automated, certain domains serve as unexplored ground. The complexity of the processes to be executed, size and material properties of the parts of interest and available space, highlight the need for new automation technology. In this thesis, a systematic classification of product complexity and common industrial processes versus the use of conventional and bio-inspired robots is presented, aiming to identify the benefits of such robots over their conventional competitors. Moreover, a novel cable-driven snake robot design is presented and developed, featuring a modular lightweight structure of several segments, each of them controlled by a 3-cable mechanism, providing them 2 degrees-of-freedom. It exhibits significant potential to demonstrate high levels of versatility in navigating inside intricate, confined environments and narrow passages, such as aircraft fuel tanks, enabling automation of unhealthy processes that traditionally require human intervention. For the validation of the proposed approach, a case study under a real industrial environment is presented.
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Keywords
Snake robots, Manufacturing, Mechatronics