Development of cable maintenance robot for cable‐stayed bridges

Purpose – In order to replace the conventional human maintenance of cable‐stayed bridges, a robot is designed and constructed for tasks such as cleaning, painting and rust‐detecting. Design/methodology/approach – Adopting a modular approach, two kinds of climbing mechanisms, plus a painting mechanism and a rust‐detecting method are designed. Findings – A robot that can climb and maintain the cables of cable‐stayed bridges has been designed and constructed. It has been proved by experiment that the robot can overcome many disadvantages of conventional human bridge‐maintenance, and drastically improve efficiency, cost, and safety. Research limitations/implications – The robot is of industrial size, but a new mechanism requiring less installing time will be designed for the future. Practical implications – The robot has been applied to cables of the Nanpu Bridge and Xupu Bridge in Shanghai. More than 80 cable‐stayed bridges and six suspension bridges have been built or are being constructed across large rivers in China alone. This gives an enormous potential market. Originality/value – The cable maintenance robot developed in this paper is the world's first special robot for the cables of cable‐stayed bridges.