A planetary wheel type obstacle crossing robot, including a frame, a front drive set, and a rear drive set, is provided. The front drive set and the rear drive set are respectively connected to a front end and a rear end of the frame. The front drive set includes a dual-drive steering wheel structure, which includes two drive wheels and two first drive devices. The first drive devices respectively output different rotational speeds to the drive wheels, so that the dual-drive steering wheel structure rotates. The rear drive set includes two planetary wheel sets, two second drive devices, and a planetary wheel set suspension structure. Each planetary wheel set is individually driven and includes a front wheel, a rear wheel, and an upper wheel. The wheels of each planetary wheel set cooperate to climb over an obstacle under an action of a driving torque output by the second drive device.

An omnidirectional wheel whose outer circumference surface is formed by pluralities of rollers, and includes a rotating part that rotates around a rotation axis. A plurality of supports are arranged in a circumferential direction of the rotating part and each mounted on the rotating part. The rollers include a plurality of first rollers and a plurality of second rollers. Each support has a first arm supporting one end side of a corresponding first roller of the plurality of first rollers, and a second arm supporting the other end side of the corresponding first roller. A corresponding second roller of the plurality of second rollers is supported by the first arm of one of two supports that are adjacent to each other in the circumferential direction and the second arm of the other one of the two supports.

An omnidirectional wheel whose outer circumference surface is formed by pluralities of rollers, and includes a rotating part that rotates around a rotation axis. A plurality of supports are arranged in a circumferential direction of the rotating part and each mounted on the rotating part. The rollers include a plurality of first rollers and a plurality of second rollers. Each support has a first arm supporting one end side of a corresponding first roller of the plurality of first rollers, and a second arm supporting the other end side of the corresponding first roller. A corresponding second roller of the plurality of second rollers is supported by the first arm of one of two supports that are adjacent to each other in the circumferential direction and the second arm of the other one of the two supports.

A weed trimmer trolley assembly includes a clamp which has a first portion that is closable with a second portion for securing around a pole of a weed trimmer. A swivel is rotatably disposed on the clamp and the swivel is positionable at a variety of angles with respect to the weed trimmer. A pair of legs is each coupled to and extends downwardly from the swivel. Each of the legs comprises a first half that threadably engages a second half such that each of the legs has an adjustable length. A pair of arms is provided and each of the arms is coupled to a respective one of the legs. A pair of rollers is each rotatably coupled to a respective one of the arms to support the weed trimmer and thereby assist a physically limited user with employing the weed trimmer.

A caster wheel brake system for a mobile support system such as a cart or other wheeled structure is operable to selectively secure caster wheels against rolling rotation. The system includes a caster wheel assembly and a braking mechanism mounted nearby. A pair of brake actuation inputs, such as handles or levers, can be secured to the cart and independently operated to rotate a rotator link, which in turn rotates a brake-actuating link. Rotation of the brake-actuating link deactivates the braking mechanism to allow rolling rotation of the caster wheels. Optionally, the operation of one of the handles to deactivate the braking mechanism has no effect on the other handle.

The autonomous paint spraying machine is an autonomous mobile system for making paint markings on surfaces. The autonomous paint spraying machine includes a chassis having longitudinally opposed first and second edges, where the first edge has a linear contour and the second edge has an arcuate contour. A linear track is mounted on the chassis adjacent the first edge, and an arcuate track is mounted on the chassis adjacent the second edge. A paint receptacle is mounted on an upper surface of the chassis, and a plurality of driven wheels are mounted on a lower surface of the chassis. A controller is configured for controlling actuation and orientation of the plurality of driven wheels. First and second spray nozzles each receive paint from the paint receptacle. The first spray nozzle is slidably mounted on the linear track, and the second spray nozzle is slidably mounted on the arcuate track.

A method of inspection or maintenance of a curved ferromagnetic surface using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) having a releasable crawler is provided. The method includes: flying the UAV from an initial position to a pre-perching position in a vicinity of the ferromagnetic surface; autonomously perching the UAV on the ferromagnetic surface; maintaining magnetic attachment of the perched UAV to the ferromagnetic surface; releasing the crawler from the magnetically attached UAV onto the ferromagnetic surface; moving the crawler over the curved ferromagnetic surface while maintaining magnetic attachment of the released crawler to the ferromagnetic surface; inspecting or maintaining the ferromagnetic surface using the magnetically attached crawler; and re-docking the released crawler with the perched UAV.

A magnetic crawler configured to navigate on and inspect a ferromagnetic cylindrical surface is provided. The crawler includes a chassis, a controller configured to control the crawler, a probe configured to inspect the cylindrical surface under the control of the controller, and only three articulated magnetic wheels configured to tangentially contact and magnetically adhere to the cylindrical surface. The wheels include two drive wheels respectively coupled to the chassis by two articulation joints and configured to drive the crawler in a desired direction on the cylindrical surface by actively rotating the two drive wheels independently about respective drive axes of rotation by respective drive motors under the control of the controller; and a rear wheel coupled to the chassis by a rear articulation joint and configured to passively rotate about a rear drive axis of rotation in response to the active rotations of the two drive wheels.

Inspection robots with swappable drive modules are described. An example inspect robot may include a first removeable interface plate on the side of a robot chassis. The first removable interface plate may couple a first drive module to an electronic board, within the chassis, where the electronic board includes a drive module interface circuit communicatively coupled to the first drive module. The example inspect robot may also include a second removeable interface plate on a side of a robot chassis. The second removable interface plate may couple a second drive module to an electronic board, within the chassis, where the electronic board includes a drive module interface circuit communicatively coupled to the second drive module.

A vehicle includes a frame including a front frame part and a rear frame part. An elongated single wheel is rotatably connected to one of the front frame part and the rear frame part. The elongated wheel houses an expansion device including a linkage mechanism adapted to reconfigure a shape of the elongated wheel between a cylindrical shape in top view of the vehicle when the vehicle is traveling in a straight direction and a frustoconical shape in top view of the vehicle in a turning condition of the vehicle.