TAOYAKA-III: A Six-Legged Robot Capable of Climbing Various Columnar Objects

Abstract

Inspection and maintenance of large industrial plants are important tasks expected of robots. Furthermore, it is expected that an autonomous robot will be able to climb various arbitrary columnar objects, such as pipes, pillars, and trees. These tasks would be very difficult for conventional robots, because most must first assess the shape of the object and control many bodily degrees of freedom in order to climb. In our previous work, we developed a flexible manipulator, inspired by an octopus, which could grasp various objects without sensors or controls. Its flexible body passively adapted to differences in the objects’ features. In this research, we apply that mechanism to a six-legged climbing robot, which can climb arbitrary columnar objects without first sensing their shapes.