Design concept of a double caterpillar type robot system for crack diagnosis of rib structure of airplane wings

Abstract

Crack diagnosis inside of the airplane wing is known necessary to prevent a further development of the crack. This work proposes a robotic system which is able to explore the wing and inspect the crack at the rib structure of the wing instead of human operators. A double caterpillar type robot system (DCRS) is suggested. Its design concept and components are described and a computer simulation is performed to corroborate its effectiveness. Copyright © 2012 IEEE.