Development of a Mobile Robot System for Visual Inspection under Hot Environment

A mobile robot system is developed to inspect the condition of industrial facilities under hot environment. The mobile robot is equipped with internal and external heat insulating material, an internal cooling mechanism, two CCD cameras, wireless communication devices for both the control and image signals, and an embedded controller. The portable controller is equipped with two joysticks for both the mobile robot and the inspection CCD camera, an LCD monitor, and several buttons. The developed mobile robot travels on the internal floor in hot furnaces by operators' joystick operation, captures the images of facilities in the furnaces using a zoom CCD camera, and sends the images to the portable controller through wireless communication. The mobile robot can be operated without any problem under hot environment less than 400$^{\circ}C$ in 30 minutes. This kind of automatic inspection mobile robot can be helpful to prevent significant troubles of industrial facilities without danger of human beings under harmful environment.