A Track-type Inverted Climbing Robot with Bio-inspired Spiny Grippers
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Journal of Bionic Engineering http://www.springer.com/journal/42235
A Track-type Inverted Climbing Robot with Bio-inspired Spiny Grippers Yanwei Liu1*, Limeng Wang1, Fuzhou Niu2*, Pengyang Li1, Yan Li1, Tao Mei3 1. School of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710048, China 2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, China 3. Robotics Research Center, Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen 518055, China
Abstract To enable the capacity of climbing robots to work on steep surfaces, especially on inverted surfaces, is a fundamental but challenging task. This capacity can extend the reachable workspace and applications of climbing robots. A track-type inverted climbing robot called SpinyCrawler was developed in this paper. Using a spiny track with an opposed gripping mechanism, the robot was experimentally demonstrated to have the ability of generating considerable adhesion to achieve stable inverted climbing. First, to guarantee reliable attachment of the robot on rough ceilings, a spiny gripper inspired by the opposed gripping prolegs of caterpillars is designed, and a gripping model of the interaction between spines and the ceiling asperities is established and analyzed. Second, a spiny track is developed by assembling dozens of spiny grippers to enable continuous attachment. A cam mechanism is introduced in the robot design without extra actuators to achieve stable attachment and easy detachment during continuous climbing. Finally, climbing experiments are conducted on different surfaces, using a SpinyCrawler prototype. Experimental results demonstrated stable climbing ability on various rough inverted and vertical surfaces, including concrete walls, crushed stone walls, sandpaper walls, brick walls, and brick ceilings. Keywords: inverted climbing, track-type robot, rough ceiling, bio-inspired spiny gripper Copyright © Jilin University, 2020.
1 Introduction Climbing robots, especially vertical and inverted climbing robots, have wide potential applications in bridge inspection, exploration, disaster relief, reconnaissance, and other fields. Differing from the ground climbing robots, vertical and inverted climbing robots must be able to maintain on the vertical or inverted surfaces without falling off. The adhesion method is the key and primary technology for vertical and inverted climbing robots. Conventional climbing robots utilize suction adhesion[1–3], magnetic adhesion[4,5], electrostatic adhesion[6,7], etc., to climb on wall surfaces. These adhesion technologies could be invalid in some practical scenarios, such as the rough, porous, dusty, and non-ferromagnetic surface of the concrete and brick exterior walls. As the suction adhesion could be failed due to gas leakage caused by the rough surface. The magnetic adhesion cannot work on non-ferromagnetic materials. And, the electrostatic adhesion is of high energy consumption. In nature, many animals have outstanding vertical *Corresponding author: Yanwei Liu, Fuzhou
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