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The purpose of this paper is to describe a technical creation called a constant-force cylinder, which exhibits more advantages in providing constant force in a low-gravity environment than some existing methods.

The authors design the constant-force cylinder with simple ideas and realistic applicability that is easy to achieve. The authors analyze and formulate the cylinder, and explain how the realization of constant force and low gravity are obtained during the experiment by calculations. Force analysis and simple mathematics/statistics are used in the calculation.

The authors prove the effectiveness and accuracy of the constant and low-gravity properties of the new cylinder. In addition, the authors formulate the acceleration value to drive the cylinder which is flexible and easy to be adjusted during the experiment.

The constant-force cylinder can be functioning in a low-gravity environment with simple structures and economical extensions to real-world applications.

This is an innovative design of a constant-force cylinder under the low-gravity environment. In the experiment, the new cylinder was revised from an ordinary and economic cylinder with constant force and the applicability easy to be realized in practice.

Overhead high-voltage transmission line (HVTL) inspection robots are used to inspect the transmission lines and/or maintain the infrastructures of a power transmission grid. One of the most serious problems is that the load on the front wheel is much larger than that on the back one when the robot travels along a sloping earth wire. Thus, ongoing operation of the inspection robot mainly depends on the front wheel motor’s ability. This paper aims to extend continuous operation time of the HVTL inspection robots.

By introducing a traction force model, the authors have established a dynamic model of the robot with slip. The total load is evenly distributed to both wheels. According to the traction force model, the desired wheel slip is calculated to achieve the goal of load balance. A wheel slip controller was designed based on second-order sliding-mode control methodology.

This controller accomplishes the control objective, such that the actual wheel slip tracks the desired wheel slip. A simulation and experiment verify the feasibility of the load balance control system. These results indicate that the loads on both wheels are generally equal.

By balancing the loads on both wheels, the inspection robot can travel along the earth wire longer, improving its efficiency.