Design of Electrostatic Adhesion Pads for Wall Climbing Robots

ABSTRACT In this paper, work has been carried out to design adhesion pads vertical climbing robot with a unique type of surface adhering technology. This technology has wide application prospects for wall climbing robots because of its unique characteristics compared with other types of adhesion technologies. With this technology the robot prototype can climb many vertical surfaces such as glass, wood, drywall, plastic etc. This adhering technology is called the electrostatic adhesion. The principle of electrostatic adhesion with its characteristics and advantages is described in detail. For the purpose of this work an electrostatic adhesive pad was designed and fabricated to gauge the possibility of the electrostatic adhesion technology to be applied on the vertical climbing robots. Experimental tests were carried out to analyze the adhesion and mobility performances of the robot prototype. The performance of the straight line movement of the robot was evaluated on the different surfaces. The experimental results of this study will provide a strong base for the favorable design of vertical climbing robots for various applications based on electrostatic adhesion mechanism in the future.