Development of a wall climbing robot with wheel-leg hybrid locomotion mechanism

Abstract

A novel prototype of self-contained wall-climbing robot used for special tasks such as rescue, inspection, surveillance and reconnaissance is developed. The wheel-leg hybrid locomotion mechanism enable the robot to achieve quick motion on wall surface, as well as obstacle- spanning on wall surfaces and smooth wall-to-wall transitions. The robot is composed of a base body and a mechanical leg with 3 DOF. The base body is a big flat suction cup with three-wheeled locomotion mechanism inside, and there is a small flat sucker in the end of the mechanical leg. The new designed chamber seal has simple structure and has steady and reliable performance. A distributed embedded control system is also described which enable the robot operating manually and semi-autonomously in wheeled motion mode or legged motion mode. Kinematics model of the robot is established to analyze the robot’s motion on the wall. And the locomotion gait of the robot is discussed. Safety analysis of the robot on vertical surfaces shows the robot’s reliable adhesion ability to working on wall surfaces.