Modeling and Analysis of a Magnetic Adhesive Mechanism for the Crawler Wall-climbing Robot

Abstract

This paper presents the modeling, optimization and validation of a magnetic mechanism for the wall-climbing robots. Magnetic wall-climbing robots have great potential application due to the unique characteristics such as large adhesive force and loading capacity. However, researches have seldom focused on the analytical modeling and optimization of the magnetic adhesive characteristics for the adhesive mechanism, which may influence the loading capacity and motion flexibility of the whole robot greatly. Therefore, the magnetic field and adhesive force of the wall-climbing robot are systematically investigated in analytical, numerical and experimental ways, which is used for the design and optimization of adhesive mechanism. The schematic structure of the wall-climbing robot and the magnet pattern are presented. Then, the magnetic field and adhesive force are formulated based on magnetic scalar potential. Subsequently, the derived mathematical models are validated with numerical simulations, and design optimization is carried out based on the analytical models. Finally, one research prototype of the wall-climbing robot is developed, and experiments are conducted to verify the theoretical results and evaluate the adhesive performance of magnetic mechanism.