Li Jiang,∗∗∗ Yi Luo∗∗,∗∗∗ , Weinan Chen,∗∗∗∗ Qilin Bi,∗ Zhihao Xu,∗∗ Xuefeng Zhou,∗∗ and Shichao Gu,∗,∗∗
Bionic design, adhesion module, active compliance, kinematic analysis
The ability of wall-climbing robots to perform inspection and maintenance tasks depends on the compliance and stability of their adhesion modules. However, when facing situations with continuously variable curvature environments or large curvature surfaces, such as aircraft skin surfaces and wind turbine blades, existing adhesion modules are unable to achieve active compliant adsorption due to the single or multi-point fixed layout of the adsorption end. To solve this problem, this paper proposes and produces a bionic three-toe adhesion module for complex surfaces, which can actively adjust the position of the end suction cups through the coordinated movement of the toe joints, thus realising the active compliant adsorption on complex surfaces. The design of the toe joints is inspired by tree frogs and bionic fingers and adopts a “roll + pitch” layout. The overall structure and dimensions of the bionic adhesion module are determined through kinematic analysis, comparative analysis of various toe numbers and layouts, and scale synthesis. Finally, the kinematic model and toe workspace were simulated and analysed, and the performance of the bionic three-toe adhesion module was verified by compliant adsorption experiments.
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