Design and analysis of a wall‐climbing robot for passive adaptive movement on variable‐curvature metal facades

Abstract

Abstract To facilitate the safe adsorption and stable motion of robots on curved metal surfaces, a wall‐climbing robot with a wheeled‐type mobile mechanism that can passively self‐adapt to walls with different curvature is proposed. The robot is composed of two relatively independent passive adaptive mobile mechanisms and overrunning permanent magnetic adsorption devices to achieve effective fitting of the driving wheels to the wall surface and adaptive surface motion. The overall design is based on a double‐hinged connection scheme and gap‐type permanent magnetic adsorption. The minimum adsorption force required for the robot to achieve stable climbing motion with no risk of slipping or capsizing is determined by developing a static analysis model. The effects of air‐gap size and wall thickness on the adsorption force are analyzed by means of magnetic circuit design studies and parametric simulations on the permanent magnet adsorption device, as well as design optimization of the permanent magnet device. The motion performance test of the fabricated prototype shows that the robot can achieve adaptive curvature motion with self‐attitude adjustment, and has a certain load capacity, obstacle crossing capability, and good surface adaptivity.