Climbing robots using adhesion force - Introduction

1. Introduction

  Climbing robots are developed to help people. A lot of climbing robots are researched for various purpose, such as window cleaning [1], wall painting [2], exploration [3] and rescue operation. Climbing robots use forces, such as chemical or vaccum cups. Chemical adhesion, like hot melt adhesive, consumes low-energy when not moving, but costs high-energy when moving. Method using vacuum cups can generate high adhesion forces on smooth surface, but it's noisy, weaker, and energy inefficient on rough surfaces [4].

 In order to overcome these shortcomings, scientists are researching the Biomimetic adhesion mechanism. They found that eight fundamental attachment mechanisms have been used for climbing: 1) hooks, 2) lock or snap, 3) clamp, 4) spacer or expansion anchor, 5) suction, 6) dry adhesion, 7) wet adhesion, and 8) friction [5]. Especially, dry adhesion and friction are used for climbing robot. 

Functional principles of Biological attachment systems and physical effects involved

 Following posts, I will write about Biological attachment forces in detail, introduce robots using Biomimetic mechanism and their pros and cons.