Development of Hanger-Rope Inspection Robot for Suspension Bridges

This paper describes the development of a hanger-rope inspection robot for suspension bridges. The inspection robot inspects the hanger rope by going up and down the rope installed vertically downward from the main cable of a suspension bridge. The going-up-and-down mechanism of the robot consists of a drive roller driven by a motor and a non-excitation electromagnetic brake, and the robot can safely descend after climbing the rope at high speed. The developed robot is small in size and light in weight, and an inspection worker can easily install the robot on the rope. In addition, the robot can be wirelessly controlled with ease from the controller. First, this paper describes the hanger-rope inspection strategy of the suspension bridge. Then, the developed prototype 2 robot is introduced. Next, the result of the hanger-rope inspection in an actual suspension bridge and the problems are clearly revealed by experiment. Finally, the newly developed prototype 3 robot is introduced, and the result of the going-up-and-down experiment is described.