2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

May 23-27, 2022. Philadelphia, PA, USA

An Agile Bicycle-like Robot for Complex Steel Structure Inspection

Son Thanh Nguyen1 , Hai Nguyen2 , Son Tien Bui3 , Van Anh Ho3 , Trung Dung Ngo4 , Hung Manh La1

Abstract— This paper presents a simple but compact design

of a bicycle-like robot for inspecting complex-shaped ferromag-
netic structures. The design concept for versatile locomotion
relies on two independently steered magnetic wheels formed
in a bicycle-like configuration, allowing the robot to possess
multi-directional mobility. The key feature of a reciprocating
mechanism enables the robot to change its shape when passing
2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) | 978-1-7281-9681-7/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9812153

obstacles. A dynamic joint of the robot configuration makes it

naturally adapt to uneven and complex surfaces of steel struc-
tures. We demonstrate the usability and practical deployment
of the robot for steel thickness measurement using an ultrasonic
sensor.

I. I NTRODUCTION
Steel structures are indispensable parts of modern civi-
lization. Typical structures, including bridges, wind turbines,
electric towers, oil rigs, ships, and submarines, are made of
Fig. 1. Typical steel structures: a) Sea-crossing steel bridges. b) Offshore
steel. Frequent maintenance is required to warrant the safety oil rigs. c) Ship shells. d) Oil tanks and pipelines. (Source: Google images)
and longevity of such structures [1]–[3]. Until today, these in-
spections are still manually conducted by professional human animals, spider-like robot [26], legged robot [27], inchworm-
inspectors who visually inspect damages and detect faults on like robot [28], and hybrid robot [29]–[31] were designed
or inside these structures [4]–[6]. However, human-carried and examined. However, it is challenging to design a con-
inspections are usually highly time-consuming, costly, and troller for the complexity of robot mechanics in real-world
risky. For instance, it is highly dangerous for an inspector to applications. Recent development of aerial robots provides an
climb up and hang on cables to inspect far-reached areas alternative inspection solution [32], [33]. Nonetheless, drones
of bridges (Fig. 1a) or offshore oil rigs (Fig. 1b). Even may be not feasible with installing touched sensors required
the inspection of less complicated structures such as ship for in-depth inspections of fatigue cracks or steel thickness
shells (Fig. 1c) and gas/oil tanks/piles (Fig. 1d) is also highly of structures. Other non-standard moving mechanisms were
challenging due to its large scale. proposed accordingly [34]–[36].
Utilizing robots with sensing tools to automate inspection Nevertheless, priorly proposed bike-like robots do not
is an emerging solution [7]–[11]. Several innovative robot have high directional flexibility, limiting mobility in narrow
designs including conventional wheeled robots inspired de- spaces. The rigid shapes of such robots restrict their maneu-
signs [12]–[20] and tank-like tracks widening the contacting verability for passing extreme obstacles such as thin edges
areas of the robots on steel surfaces [21]–[25] have been or acute corners. Except [37], these mechanic designs do
presented in recent years. Such designs can work well not have a mechanism for touched sensors that are essen-
on structures with large surfaces, e.g., ships or tanks but tial in structural inspection tasks, e.g., measuring material
encounter difficulties on complex surfaces, e.g., bridges and thickness, paint quality, structural vibration.
oil rigs. Inspired from the mobility capacity of climbing This study focuses on optimizing the climbing capability
and the multi-directional locomotion of a bike-liked inspec-
This work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)
under grants NSF-CAREER: 1846513 and NSF-PFI-TT: 1919127, and the
tion robot, making it maneuver on complex ferromagnetic
U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Re- structures. Inspired from the work in [38], we developed a
search and Technology (USDOT/OST-R) under Grant No. 69A3551747126 transforming mechanism enabling the robot to reconfigure
through INSPIRE University Transportation Center, and the Vingroup Joint
Stock Company/ Vingroup Innovation Foundation (VINIF) under project
to overcome concave and convex-edged obstacles such as
code VINIF.2020.NCUD.DA094. The views, opinions, findings and conclu- L-, T-, and I-shaped beams or thorny corners. We also
sions reflected in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not equipped the robot with a thickness sensor and a deploying
represent the official policy or position of the NSF, the USDOT/OST-R, and
the VINIF.
mechanism. We demonstrated the robot’s working principles
1 The authors are with the Advanced Robotics and Automation (ARA) and functionalities through laboratory and field tests.
Lab, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University
of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA. 2 Northeastern University, USA. II. OVERALL S YSTEM D ESIGN
3 Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Tech., Japan. 4 University of
Prince Edward Island, Canada. Corresponding author: Hung La, email: The front view and the back view of the robot are depicted
hla@unr.edu. in Fig. 2a. We added a thickness transducer in the space

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 Fig. 2. (Left) The front and back view of the robot. (Right) The 3D design model of the robot.

between the two wheels. This location is ideal for protecting large surfaces with only one activated steering unit (Fig. 3a).
the sensor during the locomotion and allows good contact On narrow surfaces, the robot can change the direction by
for measurements on both flat and curved surfaces. The activating the rear steering unit instead of the front one (Fig.
robot’s mass is 1.2kg, including the sensor. We used plastic 3b). In locations where sideway movements are required, the
to manufacture the lightweight robot chassis. When powered multi-directional mode is enabled. In this mode, two steering
by a 700mAh LiPo battery, the robot can work for 30 units are active simultaneously as in Fig. 3c. The maximum
minutes through remote control. Fig. 2b shows the overall turning angle is kept at less than 90 degrees to maintain the
mechanical design of the robot. The robot’s dimension is robot’s stabilization in this mode.
150×80×90mm3 . We placed the ring magnets at the cores
of the two rubber-covered wheels, driven by two high-
torque gear DC motors (100kg·cm torque each). The steering
actuators and transforming mechanisms are controlled by two
servos (32kg·cm torque each). The front and the back of the
frame are linked by a bearing acting as a dynamic joint.

Fig. 4. The free joint (orange) in the middle of the robot’s body helps
its wheels better adhere to uneven surfaces, e.g., a) two flat curvatures, b)
positive curvatures, c) negative curvatures.

In addition, a free joint (orange in Fig. 4) working as a

dynamic connection between two halves of the robot’s body
allows the two wheels to stick to surfaces effectively, even
uneven ones such as two flat curvatures (Fig. 4a), positive
curvatures (Fig. 4b), or negative curvatures (Fig. 4c). Our
design also enables the robot to pass thin edges and acute
Fig. 3. The design concept shows the maneuverability of our robot with
active joints for the front joint (green) and for the rear joint (blue). Two
corners with two other revolute joints (shown in Fig. 5a-d).
independent steering actuators allow the robot to enable bicycle-like moving These two joints allow the distance between the two wheels
modes (a) when only the front steering unit is activated and (b) when only to adapt to working surfaces (Fig. 5c-d).
the rear steering unit is activated to change the direction on narrow surfaces.
When two steering units are activated simultaneously, (c) the robot can move
sideways.
III. M ECHANICAL D ESIGN AND A NALYSIS
For high mobility, two revolute joints were installed,
making two steering units (Fig. 3). These two units allow This section provides a detailed mechanical analysis of
the robot to work on bicycle-like and multi-steering modes. our robot, including the analysis of the transformation, the
The bicycle-like mode is utilized when the robot operates on maneuverability, and the sensor deployment mechanism.

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 Square then sum both sides of (1) and (2), we have:
XY2 (sin2 µ + cos2 µ) = (YZ cos δ − SZ)2 + (YZ sin δ − z)2 .
(3)
Simplifying (3), we have:
z2 + YZ2 + SZ2 − XY2
SZ cos δ + z sin δ = , (4)
2XY
resulting in function δ = f (z), which is used to control the
Fig. 5. Two revolute joints allow the two wheels’ distance to be adjustable. reciprocating mechanism of the robot.
In normal conditions e.g., (a) and (b), the robot can pass corners without
activating the two joints. When the two joints are activated (colored purple),
the wheels’ distance can be small to pass a thin edge (c) or big to pass an
acute corner (d).

A. Robot Transformation Analysis

We used a reciprocating mechanism to adjust the distance
between the two wheels. Due to the high load of attractive
force when the two wheels are close, a feed screw is applied
for the slider-crank part. The mechanism allows the robot to
transform in three different shapes depending on particular
situations, as shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 8. Force analysis of the reciprocating mechanism.

2) Force Analysis: The robot’s shape transformation is
the combination of controlling δ (Fig. 8) and moving wheels
Fig. 6. The robot’s shape when applying reciprocating mechanisms. a) simultaneously. The load (the magnetic force between the
in normal conditions, b) when passing thin edges, c) when passing acute two wheels) is shared between the two wheels and the
internal corners.
reciprocating mechanism. In Fig. 8, where F is the attractive
force between the two wheels, Mload is torque that feeds
screw bears, and i is the feed screw’s transmission ratio, we
have:
PW
Mload = F i − Mwheel . (5)
QZ cos µ
B. Robot Maneuverability Analysis

Fig. 7. The reciprocating mechanism’s kinematic.

1) Kinematic Analysis: The kinematic is analyzed in Fig. Fig. 9. A situation where the adhesive force is minimal, resulting in a high
7, where W is the wheel center, reciprocating mechanism chance of falling over. In this case, the adhesive force of the front wheel is
significantly reduced when the robot hits an edge.
XYZ, and z = XS, we have:
1) Adhesive Force: To analyze the adhesive force required
XY sin µ = YZ cos δ − SZ, (1) for the robot to climb on the steel structure under normal
working conditions, we performed the analysis on an extreme
XY cos µ = YZ sin δ − z. (2) situation where the adhesive force between the magnetic

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wheels and the contacting structures is minimal, e.g., Fig. 9.
Here, X1 and X2 are two contact points of the back wheel
and front wheel, respectively, P is the robot’s weight, and h
is the distance from the center of mass of the robot to X1 .
If F2 is an adhesive force of the front wheel at X2 , then
F2 is at its minimum when the front wheel hits the corner.
To keep the robot safe, the following condition needs to be
satisfied:
Ph
F2 .X1 X2 > P h → F2 > . (6)
X1 X2
According to ISO 3691 [39] for safe weight lifting, a safety
factor of 5 was selected. Therefore, the real adhesive force
F2 needs to be at least five times greater than the result from
the above theoretical calculation in (6).
2) Extreme Locomotive Situations: This analysis calcu- Fig. 11. An experiment is conducted to investigate the load on a steering
lates the necessary motor torque when the robot stands the servo motor. A dynamo-meter is mounted on one wheel’s edge (point L) to
measure the load. The distance from L to the rotating point X2 is r (the
highest load. The highest load occurs when the robot passes wheel’s radius). a) Side view. b) Top view.
an internal corner between two perpendicular surfaces (Fig.
10), the front wheel bears an additional force F2.2 , which
Thus, the steering servo torque needs to satisfy:
is the adhesive force of the front wheel on the surface 2.
Similarly, F2.1 is the adhesive forces of the front wheel on Msteering > r (F12 + k (F2 + P )) . (10)
the surface 1. Ff 2 is the friction of the front wheel on the
surface 2, r is the wheel’s radius, k is the static friction Based on IEC 60034 [40], the actual servo’s torque is
coefficient (between rubber and steel in our design). The chosen to be at least two-fold compared to that of theoretical
minimum force of the front wheel that allows the robot to calculation in (10).
be able to overcome the corner must satisfy:
Mmoving P C. Sensor Deployment Mechanism Analysis
> F2.1 + Ff 2 + . (7)
r 2
Therefore, the moving motor torque needs to satisfy:
P
Mmoving > r(F2.1 + kF2.2 + ). (8)
2
According to IEC 60034 [40], the actual torque selected to
be at least double that of theoretical calculation in (8).

Fig. 12. The four-bar mechanism. A compression spring acts as a soft

contact with the surface. An angle lock is added to create a free movement
of the probe when approaching uneven surfaces.

A four-bar mechanism was designed for generating ver-

tical movements of the transducer, as shown in Fig. 12. A
compression spring was added together with an angle lock
Fig. 10. When the robot passes an internal corner between two perpen- to avoid the overload of servo motors and enhance contact
dicular surfaces, the robot’s load increases significantly. between the transducer and the inspection surfaces.
We analyzed the mechanism using a simplified model
3) Steering: We also analytically investigated the load shown in Fig. 13, indicating that the target four-bar linkage
torque on the revolute joints. There are two mutually affected ACDB can be considered as a special mix of the ACE and
forces, named static friction and the attractive force at the BDE reciprocating mechanisms with the same virtual slider
two magnetic wheels, as illustrated in Fig. 11. Let F12 be the E.
adhesive force of wheel 1 affecting wheel 2, and let Ff be 1) ACE Analysis: In Fig. 13, we have:
the friction at X2 , the measured load-force at point L (Fig.
11a) has to satisfy the following condition: CE cos ϕ = x − AC cos α, (11)
Msteering
F12 + Ff < . (9) CE sin ϕ = AO + AC sin α. (12)
r

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 Fig. 15. High viscosity couplant is stored in a syringe tank. A mini
Fig. 13. The four-bar mechanism’s kinematic. peristaltic pump with a silicone tube is utilized to release the couplant.

Applying the similar approach as in (1) and (2) for (11) 2) Couplant Pumping: Since we used an ultrasonic sensor
and (12), we have: for thickness measurement, couplant is necessary to fill the
air gap between the transducer and the test specimen. The
x2 + AO2 + AC2 − CE2 couplant with high viscosity was utilized to stick well on
x cos α − AO sin α = . (13)
2AC surfaces, even in upside down or vertical positions. We have
We see that (13) presents a function α = f (x). chosen the peristaltic pump type for high viscosity gel. We
2) BDE Analysis: In Fig. 13, we have: also chose the syringe mechanism for gel storage because it
can work on any robot poses. The pump is described in Fig.
BD cos β = x − BF − DE cos ϕ, (14) 15.

BD sin β = OF + DE sin ϕ, (15) IV. E XPERIMENTAL E VALUATION

We conducted experiments to evaluate the magnetic force
y 2 + AO2 + DE2 − BD2 created by the wheels and the climbing ability and failure
→ y cos ϕ − AO sin ϕ = , (16)
2DE avoidance. Based on condition (6) and ISO 3691 standard
where y = x − BF. Similarly, (16) presents a function β = [39], the force measured by a force meter satisfied the
f (y). tests of extreme situation as described in Fig. 5a, 9, and
14 with the smallest diameter of cylindrical bars being
100mm. In the worst-case scenario where there existed only
one contacting point between the wheel and a surface,
the adhesive force was 15N . The motors’ power and the
transforming mechanism’s function were also validated in
additional experiments, and conditions (5) and (8) were
satisfied. The robot’s mass m = 1.2kg, so the total weight
of the robot is approximately P = mg = 12N when we
assume that the gravitational acceleration g = 10m/s2 .
TABLE I
Fig. 14. The design of rubber tires. a) One strip tire, b) Two separated S PECIFICATIONS OF OUR TESTING CONDITIONS .
strips tire.
Structural parameters Dimension (mm)
D. Wheel Tire and Couplant Pumping Thinnest steel surface 2
Smallest steel cylinder diameter 100
1) Wheel Tire Design: The design requires a particular Thickest coated paint 3
pattern to warranty the robot’s stability in extreme situations, Highest nut or bolt area 4
particularly when the robot’s body is horizontal as it travels
along a cylinder bar. Fig. 14 depicts a cross-section in this Both the indoor and field experiments were conducted
situation. With one strip of tire for the entire wheel, the on different steel structures and bridges and a few typical
robot’s body is inclined because of gravity, causing drifting climbing examples are shown in Fig. 16, 17, and 19. The
when the robot turns as illustrated in Fig. 14a. Two separated steel structures have different thicknesses of paint coating,
rubber strips were applied to improve the approaching area and some of these surfaces are rusty, dirty, or still in
between the tire and curved surfaces to fix the drifting issue. minor-rusty conditions. Table I presents the specifications
As shown in Fig. 14b, using two strips, the turning point L of our testing conditions. Details about laboratory tests’
is created, and the moment Fmag e is generated to stabilize performances using an indoor structure and field tests on
the robot’s body. an outdoor steel bridge are highlighted below.

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Fig. 16. Indoor locomotion tests on rectangular and cylindrical bars. Due
to the flexible body and two wheels arrangement, the robot can fully contact Fig. 18. A demonstration of measuring the thickness of a steel surface.
and traverse every location of testing structures. The transducer is well contacted to the surface thanks to the compression
spring and angle lock. The final result is averaged over three times.
A. Laboratory Tests
in some rusty areas to check severe corrosion conditions.
We built an indoor structure comprising common parts of However, our sensor deployment mechanism could not reach
general steel structures (cylinder, L-, I-, U-shaped beams) the internal angles of some rusted spots due to the vertical
with structural transition joints to validate the robot’s loco- height limit of the four-bar mechanism.
motion functionalities. Our robot traversed smoothly to all
locations in the testing structure. Fig. 16a-b show different
steps when the robot was moving on a rectangular tube and
a cylindrical shape, respectively.

Fig. 19. The robot operates on a cylindrical steel bridge to perform

thickness measurements and checking for corrosion.

V. C ONCLUSIONS AND F UTURE W ORK

Fig. 17. The robot is passing convex and concave surfaces: a) turn of 90
degrees on internal corners. b) transforms the wheels to pass a thin edge on In this paper, we have presented a design of a bicycle-
a U-shaped beam. like robot for inspecting steel structures. The robot can
agilely climb different structures to perform a structural
Fig. 17a shows the robot turned a 90-degree on an internal inspection. The design was validated on a laboratory testing
corner. When facing a thin edge, the robot changed its con- structure and a cylindrical steel outdoor bridge. Experiments
figuration by adjusting the distance between its wheels (Fig. showed that the robot can adhere firmly to steel structures of
17b). Fig. 18 demonstrates a test of thickness measurement. various difficult levels. In this study, we provided a rigorous
The transducer with a nozzle on one end was first controlled analysis of the kinematics and forces that set the theoretical
to contact the target surface, then couplant was applied to the foundation guaranteeing the operational capability of the
surface through the pump. The steel thickness was reported robot in challenging applications.
27.5mm. In the future, the robot can be further equipped with
non-destructive testing (NDT) sensing modules for more
B. Field Tests in-depth inspections of paint thickness, fatigue cracks, or
We deployed the robot together with the sensor on a structural vibration. Another interesting future direction is
cylindrical type bridge as shown in Fig. 19. The bridge’s about adding advanced sensors and cameras for autonomous
structure includes cylindrical surfaces of 30cm and 22cm localization, navigation, and inspection (e.g., using computer
diameters. The robot performed the thickness measurements vision techniques) to fully automate the inspection task.

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