Abstract
To support the inspections of different contact walls (rough and smooth), a novel type of wall-climbing robot was proposed. Its design embodied a new gear transmission system arm and an adherence mechanism inspired by cicadas and geckos. The actuating structure consisted of a five-bar link and a gear transmission for the arm stretching, which was driven by the servos. The linkers and gears formed the palm of this robot for climbing on a line. Moreover, the robot’s adherence method for the rough surfaces used bionic spine materials inspired by the cicada. For smooth surface, a bionic adhesion material was proposed inspired by the gecko. To assess the adherence mechanism of the cicada and gecko, the electron microscope images of the palm of the cicada and gecko were obtained by an electron microscope. The 3D printing technology and photolithography technology were utilized to manufacture the robot’s structures. The adherence force experiments demonstrated the bionic spines and bionic materials achieved good climbing on cloth, stones, and glass surfaces. Furthermore, a new gait for the robot was designed to ensure its stability. The dynamic characteristics of the robot’s gear transmission were obtained.
Highlights
Researchers investigating wall-climbing robots looked to nature for inspiration
Based on the results presented by Goldman et al [26] on the behaviors of the cockroach, Clark et al [27,28,29,30] proposed a bionic, doublelegged wall-climbing robot for rough surfaces
This paper proposes a novel type of wallclimbing robot with a gear transmission system arm for climbing on the smooth and rough surfaces that absorbs the adhesion characteristics of gecko and cicada
Summary
Researchers investigating wall-climbing robots looked to nature for inspiration. Around the gecko, researchers studied the gecko’s toe and crawling approach to propose some wallclimbing robots. A novel, tracked, wall-climbing robot with bio-inspired spine feet was presented for rough surface [35]. This paper proposes a novel type of wallclimbing robot with a gear transmission system arm for climbing on the smooth and rough surfaces that absorbs the adhesion characteristics of gecko and cicada. The driving gear was driven by the servos, and the two driven gears were fixed with the links In this approach, inspired by the cicada and gecko, the palm of the robot conformed to the line when climbing. Based on the study of the bionic hooks and the materials bio-inspired by gecko, this robot, which can adapt to rough and smooth wall surfaces, was put forward innovatively
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