Wall-climbing Robot Research Articles

Study of a wall-climbing robot based on chain feet with negative pressure adhesion

In this paper, a wall-climbing robot based on chain feet with negative pressure adhesion is designed. The robot uses chain feet with negative pressure adhesion as the motion units and has the characteristics of adhesion and barrier crossing. Analyzing the power consumption is an important aspect of robot design. The influences of robot design parameters on mechanical characteristics are analyzed with the kinetic method. The robot power model is constructed by combining the energy model of the drive motor and the power model of the transmission system. The relationship between the key parameters and robot power consumption is established by discussing the effects of the robot load, motor angular velocity, and other related design parameters on the robot power consumption. Simulations and experiments show that the established robot power model can be used as a theoretical basis for the optimal design of robots and provides a reference for establishing an optimal model for the motion control of robots.

Highly adaptive triboelectric tactile sensor on the foot of autonomous wall-climbing robots for detecting the adhesion state and avoiding the hazard

Highly adaptive triboelectric tactile sensor on the foot of autonomous wall-climbing robots for detecting the adhesion state and avoiding the hazard

A heavy-load wall-climbing robot for bridge concrete structures inspection

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a wall-climbing robot platform for heavy-load with negative pressure adsorption, which could be equipped with a six-degree of freedom (DOF) collaborative robot (Cobot) and detection device for inspecting the overwater part of concrete bridge towers/piers for large bridges. Design/methodology/approach By analyzing the shortcomings of existing wall-climbing robots in detecting concrete structures, a wall-climbing mobile manipulator (WCMM), which could be compatible with various detection devices, is proposed for detecting the concrete towers/piers of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The factors affecting the load capacity are obtained by analyzing the antislip and antioverturning conditions of the wall-climbing robot platform on the wall surface. Design strategies for each part of the structure of the wall-climbing robot are provided based on the influencing factors. By deriving the equivalent adsorption force equation, analyzed the influencing factors of equivalent adsorption force and provided schemes that could enhance the load capacity of the wall-climbing robot. Findings The adsorption test verifies the maximum negative pressure that the fan module could provide to the adsorption chamber. The load capacity test verifies it is feasible to achieve the expected bearing requirements of the wall-climbing robot. The motion tests prove that the developed climbing robot vehicle could move freely on the surface of the concrete structure after being equipped with a six-DOF Cobot. Practical implications The development of the heavy-load wall-climbing robot enables the Cobot to be installed and equipped on the wall-climbing robot, forming the WCMM, making them compatible with carrying various devices and expanding the application of the wall-climbing robot. Originality/value A heavy-load wall-climbing robot using negative pressure adsorption has been developed. The wall-climbing robot platform could carry a six-DOF Cobot, making it compatible with various detection devices for the inspection of concrete structures of large bridges. The WCMM could be expanded to detect the concretes with similar structures. The research and development process of the heavy-load wall-climbing robot could inspire the design of other negative-pressure wall-climbing robots.

Design and experimental research of a rolling-adsorption wall-climbing robot

PurposeWith the popularity of high-rise buildings, wall inspection and cleaning are becoming more difficult and associated with danger. The best solution is to replace manual work with wall-climbing robots. Therefore, this paper proposes a design method for a rolling-adsorption wall-climbing robot (RWCR) based on vacuum negative pressure adsorption of the crawler. It can improve the operation efficiency while solving the safety problems.Design/methodology/approachThe pulleys and tracks are used to form a dynamic sealing chamber to improve the dynamic adsorption effect and motion flexibility of the RWCR. The mapping relationship between the critical minimum adsorption force required for RWCR downward slip, longitudinal tipping and lateral overturning conditions for tipping and the wall inclination angle is calculated using the ultimate force method. The pressure and gas flow rate distribution of the negative pressure chamber under different slit heights of the negative pressure mechanism is analysed by the fluid dynamics software to derive the minimum negative pressure value that the fan needs to provide.FindingsSimulation and test results show that the load capacity of the RWCR can reach up to 6.2 kg on the smooth glass wall, and the maximum load in the case of lateral movement is 4.2 kg, which verifies the rationality and effectiveness of the design.Originality/valueThis paper presents a new design method of a RWCR for different rough wall surfaces and analyses the ultimate force state and hydrodynamic characteristics.

Design and analysis of a wall-climbing robot with passive compliant mechanisms to adapt variable curvatures walls

AbstractMotivated by practical applications of inspection and maintenance, we have developed a wall-climbing robot with passive compliant mechanisms that can autonomously adapt to curved surfaces. At first, this paper presents two failure modes of the traditional wall-climbing robot on the variable curvature wall surface and further introduces the designed passive compliant wall-climbing robot in detail. Then, the motion mechanism of the passive compliant wall-climbing robot on the curved surface is analyzed from stable adsorption conditions, parameter design process, and force analysis. At last, a series of experiments have been carried out on load capability and curved surface adaptability based on a developed principle prototype. The experimental results indicated that the wall-climbing robot with passive compliant mechanisms can effectively promote both adsorption stability and adaptability to variable curvatures.

Structure Design Of ROV-Based MOPU Platform Pin Hole Spin Cleaning Device

The pile legs of the MOPU platform have been submerged in seawater for a long time, and there are a large number of Marine organisms on the surface, which has a negative impact on the stability of the platform and needs to be cleaned regularly. Most of the existing jacket cleaning technologies are aimed at cleaning the outer surface, and there are few studies on cleaning the Marine organisms attached to the pin holes of the pile legs of MOPU platform. In order to solve the above problems, this paper firstly designs a spin-type pin hole cleaning device based on underwater wall-climbing robot by drawing lessons from domestic and foreign experience. At the same time, the Fluent simulation of three commonly used cavitation water jet nozzles is carried out, and the most suitable nozzle type for pin hole cleaning is selected from the organ pipe type, shear type and corner cavitation nozzles. In the actual operation, the water temperature and depth around the ROV are changing, so the simulation needs to consider the influence of temperature and depth changes. In this paper, a reasonable point is put forward for the structural design of the spin cavitation cleaning device. The simulation results show that the corner cavitation nozzle should be selected in the pinhole cleaning operation.

Design and analysis of a passive adaptive wall-climbing robot on variable curvature ship facades

To improve the adaptive motion performance of traditional wall-climbing robots on variable-curvature facades, a crawler-type wall-climbing robot suitable for ship wall features is proposed by utilizing the advantages of passive mechanisms in realizing autonomous robots. The robot consists of two passive adaptive crawler mechanisms and a connecting module. Each track structure contains multiple permanent magnets that can passively adapt to concave and convex facades of different curvatures. A static failure model is established according to the characteristics of the triangular distributed load, and the minimum adsorption force required for the robot to achieve safe motion is determined. The Halbach Array magnetic circuit design method was used to construct a gap-type permanent magnet adsorption model for lightweight design. The influence of wall thickness and air gap distance on the adsorption force is analyzed by parametric simulation. The prototype platform test shows that the robot can realize adaptive variable curvature motion through passive adjustment of the mobile mechanism attitude and has a certain load capacity.

Wall-Climbing Robots: Optimising Adsorption and Novel Suction Techniques

Wall-Climbing Robots: Optimising Adsorption and Novel Suction Techniques

Asymmetric toughening in the lap shear of metamaterial structural adhesives.

Metamaterial structural adhesives (MSAs), whose properties primarily rely on structural design, offer promising advantages over traditional adhesives, including asymmetric, switchable, and programmable adhesion. However, the effects of thick backing structures on the adhesion properties remain largely underexplored. Herein, we investigate a series of MSAs featuring a thin adhesive layer and an asymmetric thick beam structure terminated with a film. We conduct lap shear tests on the MSAs with varying terminated film thickness (t) and beam tilting angle (θ) while maintaining an identical adhesive layer. For MSAs with a thick terminated film (t = 2 mm), the effective adhesion energy is double that of solid samples without compromising shear strength, consistent with the theoretical predictions based on the crack trapping mechanism. Conversely, for MSAs with a thin terminated film (t = 0.5 mm), the maximum shear strength and effective adhesion energy are ∼2.8 times and ∼18.6 times those of solid samples, respectively, deviating significantly from the theoretical predictions due to new crack initiations. We further explore adhesion asymmetry by tuning the beam tilting angle (θ). For MSAs with highly tilted beams (θ = 70.3°), we achieve a maximum adhesion strength asymmetry factor of τ2/τ1 ∼ 2.2 for a thick terminated film (t = 2 mm), and a maximum adhesion energy asymmetry factor of Γ1/Γ2 ∼ 5.3 for a thin terminated film (t = 0.5 mm). Our work provides useful insights for designing metamaterial structural adhesives suitable for robotic grippers, wall-climbing robots, and wearable devices, particularly those requiring asymmetric, switchable, and stimuli-responsive adhesion, and adhesives on rough surfaces or in underwater conditions.

Optimization of Holding Force for a Climbing Robot Based on a Differential Evolutionary Algorithm

Background: The advancements in robotic technology have completely revolutionized day-to-day life. In industrial applications, the implementation of robotics is quite advantageous as it may help in performing dangerous tasks like climbing high walls, working in a high-temperature environment, high radiation exposure conditions etc. Methods: This paper presents the design and development of a wall-climbing robot for dam wall inspection using an adaptive aerodynamic adhesion technique. The optimization of a robot design is done using a differential evolutionary algorithm. Results: In the proposed model, the principle of Bernoulli adhesion is used for designing the suction pad. The optimization of various variables is done using a differential evolutionary algorithm to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the wall climbing robot adhesion. Conclusion: The results of the proposed system show that the approach can find an optimal holding force and can be effectively used for applications like dam wall climbing for inspection.

Utilization of a Wall Climbing Robot for Inspection Technology

Utilization of a Wall Climbing Robot for Inspection Technology

Design and Analysis of Wheel-footed Magnetic Adsorption Wall-climbing Robot with Passing Obstacles Capability

Design and Analysis of Wheel-footed Magnetic Adsorption Wall-climbing Robot with Passing Obstacles Capability

Design and analysis of anti-overturning mechanism for magnetic wall-climbing robot

Design and analysis of anti-overturning mechanism for magnetic wall-climbing robot

Propeller-Type Wall-Climbing Robot for Visual and Hammering Inspection of Concrete Surfaces

Propeller-Type Wall-Climbing Robot for Visual and Hammering Inspection of Concrete Surfaces

Dust detection and cleanliness assessment based on S-YOLOv5s for NPP reactor containment wall-climbing cleaning robot

NPP reactor containment dust can easily turn into radioactive dust, endangering staff health and the environment. However, the nuclear reactor containment wall-climbing cleaning robot cleans blindly without the ability to clean the dust in a timely and thoroughly. In this paper, ShuffleNetV2-YOLOv5s (S-YOLOv5s) model is proposed to solve the problem of wall-climbing robots unable to detect different categories of dust in time. The use of ShuffleNetV2 in the backbone of the network not only ensures a large number of characterized channels and a large network capacity, but also reduces the complexity of the model; SIoU is chosen for the loss function to improve the model accuracy. Then, planar cleaning index (PCI) is proposed by combining the results of S-YOLOv5s to evaluate whether the wall-climbing cleaning robot cleans thoroughly. Compared to other methods, PCI considers amount and area occupation of different classes of dust. The dust data set is collected to train the designed model, and the model size is reduced to 14 % of the original model, and the FPS is 7.313 higher than the original model. Especially when compared with the state-of-the-art lightweight methods, our model has smaller model size and higher recognition speed. Experimental results have shown that our dust detection and cleanliness assessment method can be used on a wall-climbing cleaning robot to clean dust in time and thoroughly.

Research on Trajectory-Tracking Control System of Tracked Wall-Climbing Robots.

Different from the vehicles and robots that move on the ground, complex and nonlinear track-wall interactions bring considerable difficulties to the accurate control of tracked wall-climbing robots due to the effect of gravity and adsorption. In this article, the authors propose a trajectory-tracking control system for tracked wall-climbing robots based on the fuzzy logic computed-torque control (FLCT) method. A key element in the proposed control strategy is to consider the adsorption force and gravity compensation based on the dynamic model. Validated via numerical simulations and experiments, the results show that the proposed controller can track the reference trajectory quickly, accurately and stably.

Biomimetic wall-climbing robots: Research foundation, key technologies and development forecasts

Biomimetic wall-climbing robots: Research foundation, key technologies and development forecasts

Design and simulation of a 3D-printed wall-climbing robot for high-risk construction tasks

This study aims to design and calculate a model for a wall-climbing robot to replace humans in performing dangerous tasks at great heights in construction sites. The research simultaneously addresses three main issues in the process of calculation, design, and simulation of the vertically climbing robot model. Firstly, the study conducts calculations and analyzes the dynamics of the model in various working states. Specifically, it calculates the suction force of the fan in non-contact conditions to ensure the suction capability of the model during practical operations. Secondly, the core content of this method involves utilizing the airflow generated by the engine through a specially designed suction mechanism to increase the airflow velocity significantly, thus creating a low-pressure area capable of adhering to the wall. This suction force calculation method and other forces acting on the robot model are based on numerical simulation software. The boundary conditions in the calculation process for the wall-climbing robot model are derived from the tasks that the robot performs during real operations, replacing humans. Thirdly, the study designs the wall-climbing robot using the non-contact suction force method through a 3D-printed fan model to enhance the model’s durability and optimize the airflow under various conditions. In summary, through this research, the paper aims to construct a robot model using non-contact suction and complete it entirely with 3D printing technology. This model will generate cost-effective and highly efficient robot vehicles that can be widely applied in modern industrial environments.

Overview of the Current Status and Development Trend of Wall-climbing Robots

The rapid development of wall-climbing robots, wall crawling robots have received great attention from all walks of life and have been widely used in many fields. Through the analysis of the existing wall climbing robots related applications, the wall climbing robots are divided into crawler, wheeled, foot and hybrid according to the moving mode, and the wall climbing robots with different moving modes are reviewed through the literature research method; the wall climbing robots with different adsorption modes such as vacuum adsorption, magnetic adsorption, and special adsorption are compared, and the current status of research on the wall climbing robot's self-adaptive technology and the existing problems are introduced, and it summarizes and analyzes the development trend of wall-climbing robots in industry, military and other fields, analyzes the characteristics of different adsorption methods of wall-climbing robots, and summarizes and predicts the development direction of wall-climbing robots.

A Bionic Starfish Adsorption Crawling Soft Robot

A variety of soft wall-climbing robots have been developed that can move in certain patterns. Most of these soft robots can only move on conventional surfaces and lack adaptability to complex surfaces. Improving the adaptability of soft robots on complex surfaces is still a challenging problem. To this end, we study the layered structure of the starfish tube foot and the valve flap structure in the water vascular system, and use an ultrasonic stress detector to study the stiffness distribution of the arm structure. Inspired by the motion of the starfish, we present a bionic soft wall-climbing robot, which is driven by two groups of pneumatic feet and achieves body bending through active adaptation layers. We design the structure of the foot to flex to provide driving force, and there are suction cups at the end of the foot to provide suction. The soft foot has a simple structure design, adapts to a variety of surfaces, and does not damage the surface of the substrate. Variable stiffness layers achieve stiffness changes by the principle of line blocking. The Central Pattern Generator theory is introduced to coordinately control the multiple feet of the robot. After experiments, we verify the adaptability of the soft robot to curved surfaces. The research may provide a reference for the design and development of crawling soft robots on complex surfaces.