Development of a telescopic-arm type, climbing support robot

This paper describes a telescopic-arm type, climbing support robot. Although there are various kinds of wall climbing robots, there is a possibility that they may fall, due to the wall concavity/convexity or insufficient adhesion. To solve this problem, we developed the wall climbing support robot, which uses a telescopic-arm to support the climbing robot. The telescopic are includes a joint with sensors that detect the speed and direction of the climbing robot. The support robot follows and supports the movement of the climbing robot by follow-up control using detected parameters. With the aid of the support robot, the wall climbing robot can climb the wall more reliably and safely. We also provide experimental results which show that the proposed robot can support the climbing robot efficiently.