Wall Climbing Robot Based on Universal Vacuum Gripper with Bellows Linear Motion Mechanism

Abstract

In order to inspect social infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels the wall-climbing robot based on the Universal Vacuum Gripper (UVG) has been developed. UVG adhere to uneven surface by the deformable rip part. This robot has a simple structure consisting of two legs with UVGs and two rotational degrees of freedom, and can climb uneven walls and move along ceilings. However, its ascent speed of 1.2 m/min was insufficient for actual inspection. In addition, the movement between wall and ceiling become problematic in some cases without the linear adjustment of the leg position. Therefore, we developed a bipedal wall-climbing robot with a light weight linear motion mechanism using bellows to increase the climbing speed and adjust the leg position.