MARC: Magnetic Autonomous Robotic Crawler Development and Exploitation in the MINOAS Project

This report summarizes the design of the MINOAS heavy climbing robot, able to support marking and thickness measure devices and displace them over the ship hold walls, according to technical specifics defined in the MINOAS Project. In particular, a Magnetic Autonomous Robotic Crawler (MARC) with track based locomotion and electrical propulsion has been designed, paying specific attention to the capability of operating on vertical walls, going beyond discontinuities between consecutive surfaces, and carrying a significant payload. This paper reports details about the electro-mechanical design, development of the automatic control systems, integration with the overall MINOAS architecture.