Principle and experiment of vibrating suction method for wall-climbing robot

This paper presents a new suction method used for wall-climbing robots. The basic idea of this method is that the vacuum can be generated inside a suction cup attaching on a surface, if the suction cup is directly driven by a periodically vibrating force. In this paper, two types of vibrating forces are proposed, one in sinusoidal mode, and the another in square wave mode. Based on Bernoulli's equation, it is found that the vacuum degree in the suction cup is mainly determined by two parameters of the vibrating forces, namely the amplitude and frequency. To verify the validity of the analyses, an experimental platform was developed, and a series of vibrating experiments were performed. The results indicate that the vibrating suction method can definitely produce continuous vacuum, and also verify the basic relationship between the vacuum degree and the two vibrating force parameters. The minimum average air pressure of the two vibrating modes were also compared. Finally, the feasibility of the vibrating suction method was basically testified on a caterpillar wall-climbing robot. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.