A human-inspired pole climbing robot

Abstract

In this paper, we present a robotic pole climber that can be used for moving up lighting poles, telephone line poles, or similar poles for the purpose of cleaning, maintenance, or inspection. The proposed design is inspired from human climbers, which use a strap and their weight to stably climb poles. The major advantage of this design is in its capability of carrying high payloads and its natural stability. The other features of the robot are its simple design, ease of control, light weight, simple mechanism and fast climbing speed.