Robotic bridge maintenance system
OwnerMark A. Alleninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A bridge surface preparation, maintenance and painting system has a truck-mounted man lift with an extensible platform on which robot arms and cameras are mounted. Inflatable bags isolate the area of the bridge being worked on, and an apron catches debris such as from sand blasting. An operator sits at a remote control console on a truck, directs the man lift platform into position, controls the inflating of the barriers and operates and guides the robot arms through master-slave controls while watching video displays. The machine is used for surface preparation, undercoating, finish coat painting and bridge inspections.
Claims15
A robotic bridge maintenance system comprises a truck a lift boom with a proximal end supported on the truck and a distal end, a platform mounted on the distal end of the support boom for positioning adjacent bridge girders, robots having bases mounted on the platform and having extensible arms and having working heads at distal ends of the robot arms, television cameras mounted on the platform, inflatable bags mounted on the platform for contacting a bridge beam and partially surrounding the television cameras and the robots, an apron connected to the platform and extending around the platform for catching debris, and a control console mounted on the truck, the control console having television monitor displays connected to the television cameras, and having master-slave manipulators connected to the robots for directing the robots.
A bridge maintenance system having a man lift power unit mounted on a truck bed, an extensible boom extending upward from the man lift power unit, and a platform supported on a distal end of the extensible boom for positioning beneath support beams of a bridge, a robot having a base mounted on the platform, having an arm extending from the base and a wrist at a distal end of the arm, a tool-mounting gripper connected to the wrist, and a nozzle or spray head connected to the gripper for delivering abraidents or coatings to the bridge support beams, and plural inflatable barriers and environmental containment barriers connected to the platform and extending to the support beams for preventing transmission of materials to the environment, further comprising a first camera mounted on the platform and a second camera mounted on the robot arm.
A bridge maintenance system having a man lift power unit mounted on a truck bed, an extensible boom extending upward from the man lift power unit, and a platform supported on a distal end of the extensible boom for positioning beneath support beams of a bridge, a robot having a base mounted on the platform, having an arm extending from the base and a wrist at a distal end of the arm, a tool-mounting gripper connected to the wrist, and a nozzle or spray head connected to the gripper for delivering abraidents or coatings to the bridge support beams, and plural inflatable barriers and environmental containment barriers connected to the platform and extending to the support beams for preventing transmission of materials to the environment, wherein the inflatable barriers further comprise inflatable side barriers connected to the platform and inflatable and extensible end barriers connected to the platform for movement between the side barriers, environmental containment barriers being mounted opposite the robots for engaging interiors of I-beams for sealing work areas from ambient spaces.
A bridge maintenance system having a robot on an extensible platform, wherein an axis of movement on a robot is controlled by a controller and a current divider, which divides currents into a major portion and a fraction of the major portion, and a robot axis motor which moves the robot about the axis, an encoder feedback connected between the robot axis motor and the controller for sending pulses indicating movement of the robot motor to the controller, a master manipulator motor connected to a fractional output of the current divider for producing on a master manipulator control and torque which is proportional to the torque on the robot axis motor, and a positional encoder feedback connected between the master motor and the controller for movement of the master motor by an operator and indicating movement of the master motor controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.