Improvement of Magnetic Actuator Capable of Movement on Magnetic Substance

In recent years, periodical inspection of large structures, such as large steel bridges with main towers of over 200 m, has been necessary. However, robots capable of a reciprocating movement over a long range have not been established yet. In this paper, a propulsion module with a bobbin-type electromagnet to increase the magnetic force was proposed. By changing the magnetic circuit, the experimental result demonstrates that the maximum efficiency of the magnetic actuator is 36.2% and the maximum pulling power is similar to 1.5 N. Furthermore, consideration of reciprocating movement by using two mass-spring models was given. The actuator system was capable of reciprocating movement with almost the same movement properties when powered by the same input power.