Passive Foot Design and Contact Area Analysis for Climbing Mini-Whegs

Mini-Whegstrade, a power-autonomous vehicle that uses multi-spoke wheel-legs for locomotion, is able to climb vertical glass surfaces with several different wheel-leg designs. Adhesion to the glass is achieved using pressure sensitive adhesives. In this paper, high-speed video is used to compare the performance and contact area during steps of five passive foot designs. The contact area, when normalized by the leg length, may help explain the differences in performance between several designs.