Development of traveling wave type omnidirectional wall climbing robot using permanent magnetic adhesion mechanism and proposal of locomotion strategy for the robot

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an omnidirectional wall climbing robot with permanent magnets for inspecting the walls of ships and gas tanks. These features require regular inspection, which is costly and exposes workers to risk. Because such walls are ferromagnetic, they can be monitored by robots with permanent magnets, and many wall-climbing robots have been developed. However, stable movement of such robots is prevented by their small contact area. Previously, we have developed a traveling wave type omnidirectional mobile robot that uses the locomotion mechanism of a snail. This robot travels omnidirectionally and achieves stable movement through its large contact area. We expect that this locomotion mechanism is suitable for wall climbing. In this paper, we have equipped our traveling wave type omnidirectional robot with a permanent magnetic adhesion mechanism, enabling it to climb walls. In locomotion experiments, we confirm that the robot can move omnidirectionally on a horizontal surface (0°), a wall (90°), and a ceiling (180°).