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Abstract: This paper presents the design and analysis of the permanent magnetic system for a wall-climbing robot with permanent magnetic tracks. Based on the behaviour of gecko lizards, the architecture of the robot was designed and built, including the structure of the adhesion mechanism, the mechanical architecture and the anti-toppling mechanism. The permanent magnetic adhesion mechanism and the tracked locomotion mechanism were employed in this kind of wall-climbing robot. Through static and dynamic force analysis of the robot under different situations, design requirements for the adhesion mechanism were derived. Two different types of structures were put forward for the permanent magnetic units and are further discussed in this paper. These two types of structures are also analysed in detail. In addition, a finite-element method was used to verify the results of magnetic units. Finally, two wall-climbing robots, equipped with different magnetic systems described previously, are explained and their applications are discussed in this paper.
Key words: Wall-climbing robot, magnetic adhesion mechanism, tracked locomotion mechanism, anti-toppling system.
(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes formulae omitted.)
INTRODUCTION
In the robotics field, there exist many different kinds of robots, for example, under-water robots, flying robots and mobile robots. The design of most of these robots is motivated by the behaviour of animals. The same can be said for wall-climbing robots. When people observed gecko lizards, flies and other animals that can walk on a vertical wall, they were inspired to develop a device that can move in a similar fashion on a vertical wall. On the basis of research conducted on animal behaviour, different adhesion mechanisms, such as a vacuum sucker pad, amagneticwheel and dry adhesion, for wall-climbing robotswere developed.Recent studies have proved that it is the physical structure of a gecko's feet that allows it to stick to walls. In 2000, biologists and other researchers proved that the tree-like hair structure on the soles of the geckos' feet helped them stick to vertical walls. The strength of this attraction was 10 times more than what they had assumed. Gecko's unique feet are not the result of special chemicals or treatments, they never get dirty or leave a residue, they can stick to any material except Teflon and they can attach and detach their feet with little...