Courtesy of Virginia Tech

This HyDRAS serpentine robot prototype climbs a pole by converting the oscillating motion of the joints to a whole body rolling motion to climb up pole-like structures.

A Virginia Tech engineering team recently won the 2008 International Capstone Design Fair's grand prize with a trio of pole-climbing robots designed to take the place of people working dangerous jobs such as inspecting high-rises or underwater bridge piers.

The Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory of the College of Engineering scored the cash prize of 1 million won -- the currency of South Korea -- with its robots at the International Symposium on Educational Excellence competition. The team's robots are the HyDRAS-Ascent (Hyper-redundant Discrete Robotic Articulated Serpentine for climbing), the HyDRAS-Ascent II and CIRCA (Climbing Inspection Robot with Compressed Air).

The prize equals less than $700. The event took place at Seoul National University of Technology in South Korea.

The robots are designed to climb scaffolding and buildings by wrapping around a poll or beam and then rolling upward via an oscillating joint motion. Using built-in sensors and cameras, the robots then inspect the structures or handle other tasks now done by humans, said Dennis Hong, director of Tech's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory and the faculty adviser on the project.

The robots are roughly 3 feet long and use a movement unique even in nature.

"These are really wicked cool robots," Hong said in a news release.

The need for autonomous tools in the construction field is great, Hong said. He cites a 2006 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report that tracked the deaths of 1,226 construction workers in 2006, an increase of 3 percent from 2005. The same report listed 809 deaths as a result of falls from raised structures such as scaffolding, Hong said.

"Unlike inchworm type gaits often being developed for serpentine robot locomotion, this novel climbing gait requires the serpentine robot to wrap around the structure in a helical shape and twist its whole body to climb or descend by rolling up or down the structure," Hong said.

The HyDRAS robots operate using electric motors, while the CIRCA robot uses a compressed air muscle.

For now, the robots operate by a tethered wire attached to a laptop, but Hong and his students are reconfiguring the devices to function independently using an onboard microprocessor and power source.

"This family of novel robots will serve as a practical inspection tool for construction sites without putting workers in harm's way," he added.

The robots were developed by mechanical engineering students Gabriel Goldman and Nick Thayer, who are both pursuing mechanical engineering doctoral degrees.

The remaining student developers, all of which are recent graduates, are Michael Bloom, Florian Boss, Cory Kaser, Vic Kassoff, David McDowell, Spencer Patton and Jeff Philis.

Goldman and Thayer traveled to Seoul with the robots to display and present the team's work at the international symposium.

Universities from more than 15 countries submitted 44 entries, according to Hong, who remained in Blacksburg during the event.

"There was a lot of great talent in that room, and everybody brought back some good experiences," Thayer said in the release.

"Being able to compete against so many other great projects from around the globe and be recognized like that is truly an amazing feeling," Goldman said.