Development of an Earthworm-Type Electrical Wire Installation Assistance Robot Using Artificial Muscles

In this study, an earthworm-type electrical wire installation assistance robot is proposed using pneumatic artificial muscles. This letter contributes to describing the design and experiments regarding a robot that can safely and automatically install electrical wires in complex conduits within a limited installation deadline. In this study, we aim to develop a robot to assist in the installation of electrical wires in conduits. This study contributes to the development of a robot for electrical wire installation assistance and the results from field experiments. Based on previous studies, a robot to install wires in long and narrow conduits has not been developed. In this study, the applicability of the robot to electrical wire installation assistance is presented. The results showed that the robot can assist in the installation of electrical wires at average speeds of 9.6 mm/s in straight conduits and 8.4 mm/s in multi-conduits. The results show the potential that the proposed robot can significantly reduce the workload in wire installation. Furthermore, the model of the wire installation robot enables estimation of the duration of the wire installation. Therefore, in this study, insights into the development of an in-pipe wire installation assistance robot are provided.