Omnidirectional locomotion and traction control of the wheel-driven, wall-climbing robot,<scp>Cromsci</scp>

Abstract

SUMMARY Safe and cost-efficient inspection of large concrete buildings is a great challenge for mobile robots. This paper presents the locomotion system of the climbing robot, Cromsci , which uses three steerable standard wheels and negative pressure adhesion. We will introduce criteria to avoid robot slip and tilt, and methods to enhance stability. One elementary part is the close-loop-controlled adhesion system with seven individual negative pressure chambers to balance out tilt or dynamic effects caused by leaky pressure chambers. The second part is the locomotion control using a special traction control mechanism to enhance robot navigation, which will also be presented here.