DISTRIBUTED MECHATRONICS CONTROLLER FOR MODULAR WALL CLIMBING ROBOT

Abstract

Practical wall climbing robots that are used for applications requiring them to be fitted with task specific tools should be large enough to carry the additional tool payload. As size of robot is increased, inflexible body frame of wall-climbing robot limits its capability to change surfaces and to maneuver on uneven surfaces. In this paper, modular design of wall-climbing robot implementing two articulated legs per module (biped robotic modules) is presented. The design improves robot’s maneuverability and flexibility when changing surfaces or whilst walking on uneven surfaces. The minimum number of sensors and actuators in each module is fifteen. As the number of modules used in the design of the robot is increased, the number of actuators and sensors increase exponentially. Distributed mechatronics controller of such systems is presented. There is a limit of the number of modules that can results in practical operation of the wallclimbing robot. The developed control system uses three layers of message prioritization in order to control and schedule robot’s tasks.