Design of walking mechanism of quadruped inspection robot for fully mechanized working face in thin coal seam

MAO Qinghua; WANG Panteng; QIN Song; ZHONG Shimao; XUE Xusheng; WANG Chuanwei

doi:10.13272/j.issn.1671-251x.2025120123

Abstract：In fully mechanized working face in thin coal seams,fixed rail-type inspection robots are difficult to adapt to curvature of working face track and floor undulations,cable-suspended inspection robots are difficult to adapt to environments with large roof undulations,while ground-moving inspection robots have low obstacle-crossing speed and insufficient flexibility.To address these problems,a quadruped inspection robot walking mechanism suitable for the complex environment of a fully mechanized working face in thin coal seam was proposed.The walking mechanism was driven by an explosion-proof servo motor and enabled switching between high-and low-leg-lifting modes through a linkage-leg mechanism and a gear shifting mechanism,thereby balancing walking efficiency and obstacle-crossing capability.Taking the installation position of the crankshaft as the design variable and the leg lifting height of the linkage-leg mechanism and the driving torque as optimization objectives,a multi-objective optimization model was established and solved using the NSGA-Ⅱ algorithm,and the Pareto optimal solution set under both high-and low-leg-lifting modes were obtained,which significantly improved the obstacle-crossing capability of the walking mechanism while considering driving requirements and force transmission performance.A robot simulation scenario for a fully mechanized working face in thin coal seam was established in ADAMS and dynamic simulations under four operating conditions,including flat-ground walking,slope walking,flat-ground obstacle crossing,and slope obstacle crossing,were carried out.The results showed that the maximum walking speed of the robot reached 15.8 m/min,the robot walked stably on a 10° slope,and it crossed obstacles with a height of 100 mm.Under the four operating conditions,the robot posture remained controllable without instability,meeting the requirements for motion performance and stability for follow-up inspection in fully mechanized working faces in thin coal seam.