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Design and development of a wall climbing Robot and its control system

Conference Paper · January 2010

DOI: 10.1109/ICCIT.2009.5407120 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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Proceedings of2009 12th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT 2009)
21-23 December, 2009, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Design and Development of a Wall Climbing Robot and its
Control System
Md. Akhtaruzzaman, Nurullzzati Bt Samsuddin, Norsofiana Bt Umar, Mozasser Rahman
Department ofMechatronics Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
akhter900@yahoo.com, ixaty@yahoo.com, sofie_umar@yahoo.com, author4@net.edu
Abstract
The Robot, named as TRAIN WALL BOT, is designed to
navigate on smooth vertical surfaces with the capability
to avoid obstacles and overcome if the height is about
Icm. The design is inspired from train steel wheel
movement that contains two actuated legs with rotary
motion provided by a DC motor. The Robot uses pneu-
matic system and the suction force is supplied by an air
compressor that turns on intermittently. The suction
force ensures the attachment of the robot with the wall
by using 3 vacuum valves and 6 vacuum pads. The robot
is controlled using PIC I6F877A. Two limit switches
are used to acknowledge the contact with its navigating
surface. Vacuum suction is controlled based on the ON
OFF priority ofthe limit switches. Though the design is
quiet simple but it is capable to walk, climb vertical
smooth surfaces and avoid obstacles. Forward and
backward movements are also faster, smoother and
more stable (because ofthe coupling design) than other
existing wall climbing Robots. In this paper, various
aspects of prototype design and development of the
Climbing Robot are conveyed including the body, leg,
feet design and gait dynamics.
Keywords: Train Wall Bot, Wall Climbing Robot, PIC
16F877A.
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, wall climbing robot is widening up its versa-
tility to stealth and range of exploration. For example, a
small climbing robot can locate people trapped in the
rubble of fallen buildings, or navigate difficult-to-access
systems. A robot capable of functioning on any surface
of a structure can be valuable for surface-based opera-
tions such as cleaning, painting, and inspection. Re-
searchers have proposed a variety of climbing robots for
various applications. In general these robots use three
types of adhesion mechanism like vacuum suction (Wall
Crawler Robot shown in figure l.a), magnetic attraction
(Tank Vert Robot shown in firuge l.b) and gripping
with claws or grasping mechanism (Wall Climbing
Spider Robot in figure l.c).
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 1. Adhesion mechanism of different types of wall climb-
ing robots.
978-1-4244-6284-1/09/$26.00 ©2009 IEEE
Each of these mechanisms has some advantages and
drawbacks. Magnetic adhesion can be very strong and
has good power failure mitigation, but is only applicable
for ferromagnetic surfaces. Suction adhesion requires an
ambient pressure for attachment and is therefore not
suitable for space applications. Micro-claws have shown
good performance on brick buildings, but clawed and
grasping robots cannot climb smooth surfaces, smooth
metal or painted structures.
Technique of the constructed wall climbing robot, de-
scribed in this paper, is similar to the train wheel me-
chanism where suction cups are attested to the bottom
of the legs and body. It is capable to travel on smooth
surfaces with certain inclinations, such as floors, walls,
and ceilings. The usages of pneumatic system ensure the
attachment of the robot with the surface of the wall
while carrying onboard circuits, DC motor and some
pneumatic equipment. The main objective is to develop
a wall climbing robot that is simple in design, able to
walk on smooth vertical surface, able to detect ob-
stacles, able to navigate smoothly and faster compared
to existing robots where the system must be cost wise
and user friendly.
II. BACKGROUND OF EXISTING WALL
CLIMBING ROBOT
A.GECKOBOT
This gecko-inspired robot [2], shown in figure 2a, uses
PIC as its main controller and it is able to walk on flat
surface, climb and steering. It uses peeling system on its
feet to climb. Peeling is a very crucial and challenging
task for climbing robots to improve their climbing abili-
ty and to minimize power consumption. The robot has a
tail and the benefits of having a tail is preloading, hold-
ing the surface and maintaining balance in order to
move. Pressing against the surface with a tail increases
the normal force on the front toes leading secure climb-
ing technique.
(~ ~)
Fig. 2. Design of Gakobot [2]
The robot body kinematics is composed of a four-bar
mechanism as shown in Figure 2b. AB, BC, CD and
ground are four linkages. It sequentially pulls two di-
agonally opposed feet up by using a motor on the four-
309
bar mechanism, propelling itself forward. Then, the feet loaded tail ensures the robot will always push against
that are aloft are attached to the ground and the opposite the surface. The Waalbot is capable to walk and climb
feet are lifted for the next forward motion. Steering is at any direction, avoid obstacles, steer (up to 1800 of
realized by controlling two servomotors on the four-bar rotation) and plane transitions (from horizontal to ver-
mechanism separately when the other feet are aloft. tical or vice versa).
While the robot is walking, the two motors rotate in a
synchronized manner. When steering starts, its rear feet
peel off the ground and Geckobot's tail presses harder
against the surface. Then, the front motor rotates the
whole body to reach the desired angle while the tail is
sliding. At the same time, the back motor adjusts itself
for the next step to the right angle while rear legs are
aloft. PIC16F877A and H-bridges are used as its con-
troller, ultrasonic sensor is used to avoid obstacles, ad- (a) (b)
hesive footpads are used as a primary force that keeps Fig. 4. Waalbot
the robot attach with the wall. 12V on board batteries The principles of operation of the Waalbot are as fol-
are its power source. lows:
• As the motors tum, the tail of the robot presses
B. WINDOW CLEANING ROBOT (URMAKAMI) against the surface and the triangular legs rotate
forward. The two feet which are adhered to the sur-
A lead pivoting support surface, such as a pivoting
face, supports the weight of the robot. At this posi-
wheel and two or more traction drives, such as drive
tion there are 5 contact points with the surface, 2
wheels are mounted on the base of the robotic device.
feet on each side and the tail.
Vacuum pads are mounted on the bottom of the base.
The vacuum pads each have a low friction foot, de- • The motor torque provides an internal moment
signed for movement over a surface with minimal fric- which presses the front feet onto the surface while
tion while vacuum is maintained. The robot can move pulling the rear feet away from the surface.
over gaps without losing vacuum in all of the vacuum • When the rear foot reaches a critical peeling value,
pads, using a fluid limiting valve at each vacuum pad. the adhesive peels away from the surface and the
The main components of the robotic system are: robot steps forward.
• The motor-pulley system to move the robot. For the controller part, microcontroller and H bridge
• The motor driver to control the robot's rotational drivers are used to control the Waalbot. To detect the
direction and operation. obstacles, ultrasonic sensors are mounted with the robot
body. For the peeling system, adhesive footpads are
• The PIC microcontroller and the PCB board to con-
used. Table I shows the summary of the described wall
trol the robot.
climbing robots components.
• The solenoid valve and vacuum system to attach Table I Summary of the existing wall climbing robots.
the robot to the window.
Window
• Ultrasonic sensor to avoid obstacles. Geckobot Cleaning Waalbot
Robot
Mechani-
Gecko lizard 4 feet and a Triangular
cal de-
inspired body legs inspired
sign
Actua- Electrical Electrical
Pneumatic
tors (servomotor) (servomotor)
Fig. 3. Window cleaning robot. Accelerome-
Pressure Ultrasonic
Sensors ter & ultra-
The concept of the Window Cleaning Robot has already Sensor sensor
sonic sensor
been explored as an alternative to human employees,
who run a safety risk in cleaning high rise buildings. Microcon- Microcon- Microcon-
Control-
troller troller troller
However, a concept was needed which would not only ler
(16F877A) 16F877A (16F877A)
guarantee a safe, reliable and efficient window cleaning
robot but one that would also be cost-effective. Power Win-
Motor DC Motor DC Motor
dow Motor
C. WAALBOT
The Waalbot [2], shown in the figure 4, is constructed III. MECHANICAL DESIGN OF THE TRAIN
with two sets of three-footed wheels that use rotary ac- WALL BOT
tuators for a single degree of freedom motion. Like The design is very simple having three main parts, the
Geckobot, Waalbot uses dry adhesion footpads. A PIC body or base, legs and coupling. Figure 5(a) shows the
is used and it has onboard power. In addition, a spring- Train Wall Bot indicating its three basic parts.

310
 ~

l
( ~ . _1 ",._.c""" ."~....,.-,,
. . ,I",' i i i
,. ...... ~. .ij

·-1- ....
:1
of .1 ~~
.... ··.r··..
.U ,i .II ~.'
(~ (b)
Fig. 5. The Train Wall Bot (a) and some of its components (b). (~ (b)
Fig. 6. (a) Leg is attested with the wall, (b) Body is attested
The size of the body part is, 23 em in length, 15 em in with the navigating surface.
width and 1.5 em in thickness where the motor, gears The Train Wall Bot has two legs which moves simulta-
and sensors are mounted on. The two vacuum pads are neously based on the only one motor which is mounted
attested at the bottom part of the body. Two legs (each on the Robot Body. Based on this structure it is ensured
23cm * 1.5cm * 1.5cm) have four vacuum pads attested that the Robot has one degree of freedom. The specifi-
at the bottom. The leg pair has one degree of freedom cation of the robot is given in the table II.
because of four bar linkage mechanism. The H shape
coupling parts ensures the simultaneous rotation of both Table II Specification of Train Wall Bot.
legs. Robot specification
Mass (1.81 + 0.68) = 2.49 kg
A. MATERIAL SELECTION
Length 23 em
To ensure light weight and strong structure, aluminum
is used to construct the body and leg of the Robot. For Height 15 em
climbing and sticking to the wall, pneumatic system is Width 15 em
used. Air compressor (30 bar or 340 psi) system is cho- Turning radius 10cm
sen to ensure the pneumatic system to work. Tube con- Step length 10 em
nectors are used to connect the vacuum pads with the air
Vacuum pads area (per foot) Pi*r2=Pi*42=50.24cm2
compressor which is a mechanical device that increases
the pressure by reducing the volume of air. Three sole- Force 25.48N, 9.572N
noid valves are used to control the air flow of the pneu- Torque 2.58 N.m, 0.96 N.m
matic system. The solenoid valves works as ON and Pressure (per foot) 2.548*10-4 m", 0.957*10-4 m 2
OFF switch which is control by the PIC 16F877A. This
Speed 0.625m/s = 5.95 rpm
PIC is chosen as the main controller of the whole sys-
tem. The PIC also controls the rotational speed and di-
rection of the DC motor having torque output approx- C. GAIT DESIGN OF TRAIN WALL BOT
imately more than 500Nm. This DC motor generates the
rotational movement (forward and backward) of the
Robot. To transfer forces to the shafts, two gears are
used with the motor. The shafts help to rotate the two
legs simultaneously. The figure 5 (b) shows the DC
motor, gears and shafts of the Robot. The interlocking
of the teeth in a pair of meshing gears means that their
circumferences necessarily move at the same rate of
linear motion (meters per second). The smaller gear
makes more revolutions in a given period of time; it
turns faster. Here it is consider as, 30rpm = lm/s,

B. CALCULATION OF FORCE AND TORQUE

For the rotational movement of the robot there are two
different positions to attach with the climbing surface.
One, leg is attested with the surface while body is mov-
ing, two, the body is attested with the wall while legs
are moving. Figure 6 shows the two different and im-
portant positions of the Wall Bot which are related to its
navigation mechanism. To determine the forces acting
to move the robot during climbing action, it is necessary
to consider the above two conditions. To calculate force,
it needs to follow some steps like, finding volume, mass
and weight.
(d) (e)
Fig. 7. Steps of forward movement of the designed Robot.
TRAIN WALL BOT simultaneously rotates both legs
by using a motor assisted with coupling system, propel-
ling itself forward. At the beginning the robot starts
from its rest position (considered as 0°), vacuum pads
on the legs attaches to the wall (ON mode) while va-
cuum pads of the body is free from the wall (OFF
mode). Hence, body rotates forward. At 180° and it
touched the climbing surface. At this condition vacuum

311
pads of the body become attested with the surface (ON
mode) and vacuum pads on the legs are become free
(OFF mode). Hence, legs rotate forward. Following this
technique the robot moves onward. For backward
movement the robot will follow the same technique but
in reverse order. Figure 6 shows the steps of forward
movement ofthe robot.
IV. DESIGN OF CONTROLLER
Figure 8 shows the close loop diagram of the control
system. The controller is activated when the input
switch is on and it gives instruction to the motor to ro-
tate in a certain speed to move the robot forward. The
controller also gives the instruction to the system to
continue the climbing mechanism by controlling the
solenoid valves of the pneumatic device. If the IR dis-
tance sensor senses an obstacle, it will give feedback to
PIC and the PIC will control the motor to move in re-
verse order for the backward movement of the robot.
............
---------t~-_
Fig. 8. Close loop diagram of control system, designed for the
Train Wall Bot.
The Microchip's PICI6F877A, the 40 pin 8-bit CMOS
Flash Microcontroller is targeted to provide single chip
solution to control digital motion. The chip has 8 Kbytes
of FLASH programmable memory, 360 byte of data
memory (RAM), 256 byte of EEPROM Data Memory,
33 input or out put pins. The controller may receive
analog signal input from up to 8 channels. The operating
speed of the controller is provided by 20MHz clock
input DC. The controller has two PWM outputs for each
module from where only one is used to control the
speed of the motor. In this project DC Geared Motor -
SPG30 - 150K is used to control the rotary movement
of the Robot. For DC motor it is easy task to reverse the
rotational direction of the shaft by simply changing the
polarity of the DC input. Another big advantage of DC
motor is to control the variable speed of the motor shaft
movement and can be achieved with just a suitable vari-
able resistor or variable DC power supply. For more
precise control to get the maximum efficiency, electron-
ic PWM solution is the most preferable technique. The
operating voltage of the Motor, used in this project, is
12V where power is 1.IW. The rotational speed and
torque are 30 RPM and 588 mN.m respectively. The
weight ofthe motor is 160 gram.
MD30B Enhanced 30A Motor Driver is used with the
main controller because of its low cost and easy to use
and capable to drive up to 30-Ampere peak motor cur-
rent. This motor driver has 5V logic level inputs, bidi-
rectional control for one motor, onboard PWM genera-
tion and PWM speed control up to 10KHz, Heat sink
312
with fan for faster thermal release and pluggable con-
nector for more user friendly design.
V. SENSORS AND SWITCHES
Infrared Sensor (SN GP2YOA21 Sharp IR) is used to
detect obstacles. The mechanism is simple where a
pulse from IR sensor is emitted by the emitter. The light
is travel out and in the case of no object, the light is
never reflected and the reading shows no object in front
of the robot. If the light reflects and returns to the de-
tector, it creates a triangle with the point of reflection,
the emitter and the detector. On this moment the reading
can be detected as digital 10 that indicates the presence
of obstacles. The detection range of the sensor is about
10 to 80 em and average current consumption is 30mA.
Figure 8 (a) shows the triangular detection technique of
IR Sensor.
utt-I
(a) (b)
lJ ...
(c)
Fig. 9. (a) IR sensor triangulation technique, (b) Limit switch
with digital 110, (c) Valve control switch.
Two mechanical limit switches are used to detect the
contact or touch of the climbing plane. The switch has
the digital output signal that is sensed by the controller
and it controls the electronic switches of the pneumatic
device. Two transistors (2N3055) are used as the elec-
tronic switches that control the solenoid valve of the
pneumatic device. The 2N3055 is a silicon Epitaxial-
Base Planar NPN transistor mounted in Jedec TO-3
metal case. It is intended for power switching circuits,
series and shunt regulators, output stages and high fidel-
ity amplifiers. The output voltage, 5V, from PIC will
switch ON the transistor, and 12V power supply will
flow through the solenoid valve of the vacuum pump
that causes the valve to become on and continuous air
flow ensures the suction mechanism of the pneumatic
device. Figure 9 (b) and (c) shows the diagram of limit
switch and solenoid valve control switch of the whole
system.
VI. ALGORITHM DESIGN
At the initial position when the robot starts to move, the
both of the limit switches (legs and body limit switches)
are on. In this position the solenoid valve for the leg
must be on to make sure that the leg is attested with the
 moving plane and the valve for the body part must be
off which gives the capability to move the body. This
action turns off the limit switch of the body and the
switch is on again when the body touches the surface
after completing first step. Now the solenoid valve for
the body must be on and the valve for the leg must be
off so that the robot can attach with wall and have the
capacity to move its legs to keep its motion continuous.
While the robot began to move its legs the limit switch
attested with leg becomes off and it becomes on again at
the moment of touching the wall for second time. In this
position the robot comes to its initial state again from
which it began to start moving. Here the limit switches
are considered as sensors that send signals to the con-
troller when it touches the surface of the wall. To main-
tain this moving process a truth table (shown in the fig-
ure 10) is formed and based on this truth table the main
algorithm is designed and implemented to the device.
......1"£IiII'tK'I
.-co.·'",.- '.'-" • '-~hr""""""" ......
LI,"" ~ ..nch
1.....1
Lnln ~ run
flaa(~
I sP...... . , .
J J J D
1 J [I ] I
1t
i-
]
ts J
-- i - _ ) _
1
lJ
~ :I 1 b
Fig. 10. Truth table to control the suction valves.
After each five steps the Robot comes to its initial state.
Here a State Flag variable is considered to indicate the
state condition while moving forward or backward.
First line shows the initial state of the robot where limit
switches for both leg and body are on while flag is 0
(zero). When body starts moving and loses the contact
with the surface, the condition is considered as the
second stage of the moving procedure and the stage flag
becomes 1 but the action remain same. At the moment
of touching the plane with the body part the third condi-
tion will occur indicating the third line of the truth table.
The next condition will appear while the leg is moving
and finally it will reach to its initial stage indicating the
5th line of the truth table which is same as the line one.
Figure 11 shows the flow diagram of the whole process.
Fig. 11. Flow diagram of movement control algorithm.
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VII. CONCLUSION
In terms of mechanical design, the motion is limited to
climb only in the horizontal or vertical plane by its rota-
tional stepping technique while it is capable to move
over a certain height of obstacles. The design of the
robot is very simple, cost wise, user friendly and it can
move faster than other existing climbing robots. The
designed robot has one degree of freedom, so it is not
possible for the agent to move on zigzag path which can
be considered as one of the limitations of the system.
Multi directional movement and plane transition capa-
bility can be achieved by changing the design of the
mobile agent by increasing the degree of freedom. The
response of the robot to its environment can be in-
creased by adding more sensors. In addition, the vision
sensor can be installed which will be a great enhance-
ment of this climbing robot. The implementation of
wireless communication module (radio frequency or
Infrared) will enhance the device one step forward for
.la?1~~~
'l-.-.
research and other uses that can be performed by the
....M ......, l.I.tN·;toat: climbing robot. Robot to robot collaboration, multi
I I] agent communication system and remote tele-operation
I] through a host computer, local and global localization
IJ
I)
1
L
.- for indoor navigation system may be one of the impor-
J I] tant applications of the designed robot. Furthermore,
adding a gripper will allow implementing of algorithms
for carrying objects (cooperatively by multiple robots if
desired). As the early stages of the wall climbing robot
development, the Train Wall Bot will play a great role
in the research area of this field.
REFERENCES
[1] Bing L. Luka,«, David S. Cooke b, Stuart Galt c,
Arthur A. Collie d, Sheng Chene, Intelligent legged
climbing service robot for remote maintenance ap-
plications in hazardous environments, Department
of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering
Management (MEEM), City University of Hong
Kong
[2] Michael P. Murphy] Geckobot and Waalbot:
Small-Scale Wall Climbing Robots mikemur-
phy@cmu.edu, tDepartment of Mechanical Engi-
neering Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA,
USA
[3] William Tso, Michael Tanzini, Metin Sitti,Michael
P. Murphy, Waalbot: An Agile Small-Scale Wall
Climbing Robot Utilizing Pressure Sensitive Adhe-
sives Department of Mechanical Engineering, Car-
negie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
15213
[4] Weimin Shen and Jason Gu, Permanent Magnetic
System Design for the Wall-climbing Robot, de-
partment of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Dalhousie University, 1360 Barrington St.,NS
B3J2X4, Canada
[5] Yanjun Shen, Permanent Magnetic System Design
for the Wall-climbing Robot College of Science,
Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei Province
443002, China
313