A WHEELED WALL-CLIMBING ROBOT WITH A CLIMBING LEG

In resent years, wall-climbing robots used for special tasks such as rescue, inspection, surveillance and reconnaissance have been studied hotly. But the technologies used in the previous wall-climbing robots cannot meet the needs of these challengeable missions mainly in mobile capability. A new prototype of self-contained wall-climbing robot is developed, which integrate the advantages of wheeled robots and that of legged robots. It is composed of a base body and a mechanical leg with 3 DOF. The base body is a big flat suction cup with three-wheeled locomotion mechanism in it, and there is a small flat sucker in the end of the mechanical leg. It can achieve quick motion on wall surface, as well as obstacle- spanning on wall surfaces and smooth wall-to-wall transitions. The new designed chamber seal has simple structure and has steady and reliable performance. Kinematics model of the robot is established to analyze the robot's motion on the wall. Furthermore, the locomotion gait of the robot is discussed.