Wheeled Autonomous Inspection Robot

Abstract

In most industries today, inspection work is still done by people walking into risky places like chemical plants, mines, and factories. This puts workers in danger and takes up a lot of time and effort. To deal with this problem, we built a small wheeled robot that can move on its own and check for hazards like high temperature, gas leaks, and obstacles in its path. The robot uses a microcontroller to read data from a temperature sensor, a gas sensor, and an ultrasonic sensor. Based on what the sensors pick up, the robot decides where to go and sounds a buzzer if something is wrong. We tested it in a controlled setup and found that it works well, detects problems quickly, and does not need anyone to operate it manually. The whole setup is affordable and easy to build.

Introduction

The text describes the development of an autonomous inspection robot designed for industrial environments such as chemical plants, oil refineries, and mines, where manual inspection can be dangerous and inefficient.

The robot uses wheels, sensors, and a microcontroller to move and monitor surroundings. It includes temperature sensors, gas sensors, and ultrasonic sensors to detect heat, harmful gases, and obstacles. The microcontroller acts as the control unit, processing sensor data and controlling motor movement and alarms.

The system works by continuously scanning the environment while moving. If obstacles are detected, the robot avoids them automatically. If dangerous gas levels or high temperatures are found, a buzzer alerts nearby people immediately.

Key hardware components include DC motors, motor drivers, sensors, a microcontroller, and a power supply. The system is designed to be low-cost, simple, and efficient.

The robot offers advantages such as autonomous operation, obstacle avoidance, consistent performance, and improved safety compared to manual inspection. It can be used in industries, research labs, mines, and hazardous environments.

Testing shows that the robot performs reliably, detecting obstacles and hazardous conditions accurately while reducing human risk and improving efficiency.

In conclusion, the project successfully creates a low-cost smart inspection robot, with future improvements planned such as wireless monitoring, mobile app integration, cameras, and AI-based decision-making to enhance its capabilities.

Conclusion

In this project, we designed and built a wheeled robot that can inspect industrial environments on its own using sensors and motor control. It successfully detects temperature changes, gas leaks, and obstacles without any human help. The whole build is simple, affordable, and works reliably. Going forward, we plan to add features like wireless data sending, a mobile app for remote monitoring, and maybe even some basic AI for smarter decision making.

References

[1] A. Sharma, R. Kumar, and P. Singh, “Design of Autonomous Mobile Robots for Industrial Inspection,” Journal of Robotics Engineering, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 45–52, 2023. [2] S. Patel and M. Desai, “Motor Control Techniques in Embedded Robotic Applications,” International Journal of Electronics, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 12–18, 2022. [3] L. Wang, Embedded Systems and Sensor Networks, 2nd ed. New York: Tech Publications, 2021. [4] ESP32 Microcontroller Datasheet Manual, Espressif Systems Documentation, 2023.

Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Dr. J. Jebastine, Kamesh D, Harish T. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.