Design and Development of Wall Climbing Robot

TL;DR

This paper introduces a four-legged wall climbing robot that uses onboard suction pumps for adhesion, mimicking rock-climbing techniques to navigate vertical surfaces with versatile surface compatibility.

Contribution

It presents a novel four-legged robot design with adaptable adhesion methods and a climbing gait inspired by rock climbing, enhancing versatility and efficiency.

Findings

Successfully demonstrated climbing on vertical surfaces

Achieved stable movement with four-DOF legs and suction cups

Designed for adaptability to various surface types

Abstract

Climbing Robots are being developed for applications ranging from cleaning to the inspection of difficult to reach constructions. Climbing robots should be capable of carrying a light payload and climbing on vertical surfaces with ability to cope with obstacles. Regarding adhesion to the surface, they should be able to operate on different surfaces with different adhesion methods to produce strong gripping force using light weight mechanism consuming minimum power. Bearing these facts in mind this paper presents a 4-legged Wall Climbing Robot in which suction power using on board suction pumps is used as an adhesion technique. A Walking gait was developed to provide the robot with a capability for climbing up the wall. The robot's kinematics and motion can be considered as mimicking a technique commonly used in rock-climbing using four limbs to climb. It uses four legs, each with four-degrees-of-freedom (4-DOF) and specially designed suction cups attached to the end of each leg that enable it to manoeuvre itself up the wall and to move in any direction. The end effector can also be replaced with other end effectors designed for different adhesion methods to climb on variety of surfaces.