ROSI: a mobile robot for inspection of belt conveyor Henrique D. Faria ∗ Fernando Lizarralde ∗ Ramon R. Costa ∗ Ricardo H. R. Andrade ∗ Thales H. Silva ∗ Raphael F. S. Pereira ∗ Evelyn S. Barbosa ∗ Filipe Rocha ∗∗ Andr´ e Franca ∗∗∗ Gustavo M. Freitas ∗∗∗∗ Gustavo Pessin ∗∗ ∗ Dept. of Electrical Eng., Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ∗∗ Vale Institute of Technology, Ouro Preto, Brazil ∗∗∗ Vale S.A., Brazil ∗∗∗∗ Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil Abstract: ROSI is a mobile robot designed to inspect belt conveyor machinery in the mining industry. The proposed system is a wheeled and tracked mobile platform equipped with a robotic manipulator and several sensors to allow execution of the scheduled tasks. Keywords: Mechatronics, Field Robotics, Mobile Robots, Mining Robotics 1. INTRODUCTION Belt Conveyors (BCs) are widely used in the mining indus- try to transport all sorts of bulk material. In harbors, BCs are used to handle the incoming and outcoming material from trains to ships, as well as all needed maneuvers inside the harbor facilities. For instance, VALE, one of the world leaders in the mining industry, has harbors with more than 120km of belt con- veyor, such structures present a huge challenge for main- tenance. The exposure of the belt conveyors, especially its moving parts like the idler rolls, to detrimental environ- ments such as uncovered seashore atmosphere and being subject to the air-suspended residue of the transported material, shortens its life expectancy, requiring constant inspection and maintenance. Given the dimensions of such facilities, and therefore the diverse range of exposure which the equipment is subject to, it is hard to predict maintenance routine because the inspection is carried out by several teams walking by the BCs assessing temperature, noise, and vibration during operation. The measured data evaluation is based on the operator experience and sensitiveness to decide if the BC idlers should be replaced or not, as well as its urgency. It is also worth noting that as a consequence of the described procedure, the operator is exposed to that harsh environment and laborious work. To use of autonomous robots for inspection and interven- tion tasks in unstructured industrial environments was re- cently boosted by initiatives like ARGOS challenge (Total- Website, 2015) and the DARPA Subterranean challenge (Ackerman, 2019). ⋆ This study was financed in part by CNPq, the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, VALE S.A. and Instituto Tecnologico Vale. For BC automated maintenance, in (Lodewijks, 2004) is discussed strategies for inspection and servicing using the concept of an automated maintenance trolley. In (Garcia et al., 2018) is proposed the use of a mobile platform with a robotic manipulator arm attached with a pack of sensors to inspect the BCs. Another robot with similar characteristics was presented in ARGOS Challenge by Vikings team (Merriaux et al., 2019), that uses a telescopic mast, instead of a 6DOF manipulator arm, and a different set of sensors since it was intended for Oil and Gas sites. Moreover, in (Staab et al., 2019) is discussed a new rail- guided robot that carries sensors for inspection of belt conveyors. In (Chuanwei et al., 2017) is analyzed the virtual prototype of a wheel-rail inspection robot and presents simulation results indicating that although the robot presents good planar motion characteristics, it has bad performance climbing slopes. In (Cao et al., 2018), is proposed the use of a suspended inspection robot. It describes the control, positioning, sensing, and communication functions of the robot. This paper presents ROSI (see Fig. 1), a tracked and wheeled mobile robot, with a commercial manipulator arm mounted atop to give the extra degrees of freedom needed to perform the desired inspection tasks (Freitas et al., 2018). Developed by COPPE/UFRJ in collaboration with ITV and VALE, ROSI mobile platform is designed to cope with the unstructured environments where the inspections are expected to take place. 2. GENERAL DESIGN The robot is composed of a custom-designed mobile plat- form responsible for moving the system over the terrain. It is embedded with several sensors to allow it to navigate, either autonomously or teleoperated, as well as a commer- cial manipulator arm, at which other task-specific sensors may be mounted to execute the inspection. Preprints of the 21st IFAC World Congress (Virtual) Berlin, Germany, July 12-17, 2020 Copyright lies with the authors 10166