A study on wall surface mobile robots, 1

In this paper, we study the moving mechanism of a wall surface mobile robot for hazard maintenance under gravity. This robot can cling on a vertical wall or ceiling by vacuum pads. The vacuum pads are set on the crawler so as to enable rapid mobility on the surface. Each vacuum pad is simply designed. There is a mechanical valve set at each sucker and every sucker is connected with an air duct inside the crawler belt. The valve opens mechanically when the sucker touches the surface, and the sucker clings to the surface. By this mechanism, the sucking control system becomes simple. The vacuum pad is made of flexible material in order to assure a sufficient sucking force even when the surface is rough. This robot also has an automatic pushing mechanism for the suckers and distribution mechanism. We designed, made and tested the prototype. In the experiment, this robot succeeded in climbing smoothly and rapidly on the surface of a vertical wall and ceiling, on both rough and smooth finishes. (author)