Design, Modeling and Kinematics Analysis of a Novel Serial/Parallel Pole Climbing and Manipulating Robot

This paper introduces a multi-task 4 DOF pole climbing/manipulating robotic mechanism. A hybrid serial/parallel mechanism, providing 2 translations and 2 rotations, have been designed as the main part of the mechanism. This robotic mechanism can travel along tubular structures with bends, branches and step changes in cross section. It is also able to perform manipulation, repair and maintenance tasks after reaching the target point on the structure. After introducing the mechanism, a kinematics model and the forward and inverse kinematics as well as the workspace analysis of the mechanism are presented.