Abstract
This study describes the development of an omni-directional wall climbing robot with permanent magnets for the purpose of inspecting the walls of ships and gas tanks. The robot travels omnidirectionally and achieves stable movement through its large contact area. We equipped our traveling-wave-type omni-directional robot with a permanent magnetic adhesion mechanism and confirmed its wall-climbing ability. In this study, we analyze the magnetic field of the permanent magnetic adhesion mechanism by using finite element method. An improvement of the permanent magnetic adhesion mechanism based on the results of the analysis is foreseen.
