Development and Experiment of Wall-Climbing Caterpillar Robot

Abstract:

In order to demonstrate the validity and the benefit of the closed-chain kinematics of four-link motional method for the gait of wall-climbing caterpillar robot, the mathematical model and the relation of kinematical parameters were built. The caterpillar robot can climb on vertical wall by coordinated rotation of one active joint and three passive joints. To testify the availability of the closed-chain kinematics of four-link method, a prototype of wall-climbing caterpillar robot with three kinds of adhesion modules was designed. A successful wall-climbing experiment confirms the principles of the closed-chain kinematics. The results show that the basis for selecting driving joints was reasonable and that the adhesion module can produce powerful adsorption force with small weight and volume to ensure the safety and reliability of wall-climbing.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 308-310)
• Pages: 2031-2036
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.308-310.2031
• Online since: August 2011
• Authors: Kun Wang, Wei Wang, Hou Xiang Zhang
• Keywords: Active Joint, Caterpillar Robot, Gait, Wall-Climbing

References

[1] Shanqiang Wu, Mantian Li, Shu Xiao, et al. A Wireless Distributed Wall Climbing Robotic System for Reconnaissance Purpose[C]. Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, Luoyang, China, June 25-28, 2006: 1308-1312.

DOI: 10.1109/icma.2006.257816

[2] MIYAKE T, ISHIHARA H, YOSHIDA R S S. Development of Small-Size Window Cleaning Robot A traveling direction control on Vertical surface Using accelerometer[C]. Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation, Luoyang, China, June 25-28, 2006: 1302 - 1307.

DOI: 10.1109/icma.2006.257815

[3] Zhiyuan Qian, Yanzheng Zhao, Zhuang Fu. Development of Wall-climbing Robots with Sliding Suction Cups[C]. Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Beijing, China, October 9-15, 2006: 3417 - 3422.

DOI: 10.1109/iros.2006.282579

[4] Jizhong Xiao, MORRIS W, CHAKRAVARTHY N, et al. City-climber: a New Generation of Mobile Robot with Wall-climbing Capability[C]. Proceedings of the 2006 SPIE The International Society for Optical Engineering, Orlando (Kissimmee), FL, USA, April 17 2006, Vol. 6230 62301D-1.

DOI: 10.1117/12.666374

[5] Houxiang Zhang, Jianwei Zhang, Rong Liu, et al. Realization of a service robot for cleaning spherical surfaces[J]. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2005, 2 (1): 53-58.

DOI: 10.1109/robio.2005.246296

[6] NISHI A, MIYAGI H, A Wall-Climbing Robot Using Propulsive Force of a Propeller: Mechanism and Control in a Mild Wind[J]. JSME international journal. Ser. C, Dynamics, control, robotics, design and manufacturing, 1993, 36-C(3): 361-367.

DOI: 10.1299/jsmec1993.36.361

[7] DALTORIO K A, WITUSHYNSKY T C, WILE G D, et al. A Body Joint Improves Vertical to Horizontal Transitions of a Wall-Climbing Robot[C]. Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Pasadena, CA, USA, May 19-23, 2008: 3046 - 3051.

DOI: 10.1109/robot.2008.4543673

[8] SAUNDERS A, GOLDMAN D I, FULL R J, et al. The RiSE Climbing Robot: Body and Leg Design[C]. Proceedings of the 2006 SPIE The International Society for Optical Engineering, Orlando (Kissimmee), FL, USA, April 17 2006, Vol. 6230 623017-1.

[9] Wei Wang, Houxiang Zhang, Jianwei Zhang, et al. Crawling Gait Realization of Modular Climbing Caterpillar Robot[C]. 2009 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Kobe, Japan, May 12-17, 2009.

DOI: 10.1016/j.pnsc.2009.07.009

[10] Wei Wang, Houxiang Zhang, Kun Wang. Gait Control of Modular Climbing Caterpillar Robot[C]//Proceeding of 2009 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, Singapore, July 14-17, 2009.

DOI: 10.1109/aim.2009.5229710

[11] Wei Wang, Kun Wang, Guanghua Zong, et al. Principle and experiment of vibrating suction method for wall-climbing robot[J]. Vacuum 85 (2010) 107-112

DOI: 10.1016/j.vacuum.2010.04.010