A STUDY ON WALL SURFACE MOBILE ROBOTS - DEVELOPMENT OF MOVING MECHANISM FOR CRAWLER-TYPE WALL SURFACE MOBILE ROBOTS WITH VACUUM PADS

We study the moving mechanism of a wall surface mobile robot for hazar d maintenance under gravity. This robot can attach itself to a vertica l wall or ceiling by vacuum pads. The vacuum pads are set on the crawl er so as to enable rapid mobility on the surface. Each vacuum pad is s imply designed. There is a mechanical valve set at each sucker, and ev ery sucker is connected to an air duct inside the crawler belt. The va lve opens mechanically when the sucker touches the surface, and the su cker clings to the surface. By this mechanism, the sucking control sys tem becomes simple. The vacuum pad is made of flexible material in ord er to ensure 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, fabricated and tested the protot ype. In the experiment, this robot succeeded in smoothly and rapidly c limbing the surface of vertical walls and ceilings having both rough a nd smooth finishes.