A climbing robot based on Hot Melt Adhesion

Abstract

Robust climbing in unstructured environment has been one of the long-standing challenges in robotics research. Among others, the control of large adhesion forces is still an important problem that significantly restricts the locomotion performance of climbing robots. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a novel approach to autonomous robot climbing which makes use of Hot Melt Adhesion (HMA). The HMA material is known as a very economical solution to achieve large adhesion forces, and the forces can be varied by controlling its material temperature. For locomotion in both inclined and vertical walls, this paper investigates the basic characteristics of HMA material, and proposes a design and control of climbing robot that uses the HMA material for attaching and detaching its body to the environment. The robot is equipped with servomotors and thermal control units to actively vary the temperature of the material, and the coordination of these components enables the robot to walk against the gravitational forces even with a relatively large body weight. A real-world platform is used to demonstrate locomotion on a vertical wall, and the experimental result explains feasibility and overall performances of this approach.