Design principles of the locomotion mechanism of a wall climbing robot

Abstract

Most of the present wall-climbing robots are either wheel or tracked wheel based. They cannot negotiate bumps or corners in their path. Other present linkage driven wall climbers are over-actuated mechanisms. We propose a linkage driven underactuated wall climbing mechanism. The locomotion technique is based on the rowing principle of the boat. A comparison of different adhesion techniques is also narrated in this paper. The present work proposes a pneumatic suction based wall climbing robot for non destructive testing of tall structures. The design principle of a novel spring assisted locomotion mechanism is described in this paper.