Design and development of an Inspection Robotic System for indoor applications

- An Inspection Robotic System (IRS) is designed for indoor applications such as in industrial sites to test low-cost technologies trying to significantly reduce the acquisition and maintenance costs so as to facilitate wider use of the monitoring systems to widespread their possible applications.
- The development of such systems will be exploited in the form of a tool kit to be flexible and installed on a hybrid mobile system, in order to be used for inspection and monitoring.
- The proposed IRS may constitute a solution for a broad range of scenarios spacing from industrial sites, brownfields, historical sites or sites dangerous or difficult to access by operators.
- The interoperability of the mobile hybrid robot and internal and external sensors is shown through experimental tests to get a set of information, which can be further processed and integrated for decision-making.

The inspection and monitoring of industrial sites, structures, and infrastructure are important issues for their sustainability and further maintenance. Although these tasks are repetitive and time consuming, and some of these environments may be characterized by dust, humidity, or absence of natural light, classical approach relies on large human activities. Automatic or robotic solutions can be considered useful tools for inspection because they can be effective in exploring dangerous or inaccessible sites, at relatively low-cost and reducing the time required for the relief. The development of a paradigmatic system called Inspection Robotic System (IRS) is the main objective of this paper to demonstrate the feasibility of mechatronic solutions for inspection of industrial sites. The development of such systems will be exploited in the form of a tool kit to be flexible and installed on a mobile system, in order to be used for inspection and monitoring, possibly introducing high efficiency, quality and repetitiveness in the related sector. The interoperability of sensors with wireless communication may form a smart sensors tool kit and a smart sensor network with powerful functions to be effectively used for inspection purposes. Moreover, it may constitute a solution for a broad range of scenarios spacing from industrial sites, brownfields, historical sites or sites dangerous or difficult to access by operators. First experimental tests are reported to show the engineering feasibility of the system and interoperability of the mobile hybrid robot equipped with sensors that allow real-time multiple acquisition and storage.