Bionics Mechanism and System Design of a Spine-Type Flying and Wall-Climbing Robot

Based on in-depth analysis on bionic principles including landing, perching and crawling of natural animals on unstructured dusty surfaces, the crawling dynamics and contact-impact models for the spine-type flying and wall-climbing robot are established, and the crawling dynamics of the wall-climbing system and the contact-impact dynamic behavior of complete machine are calculated. Using the flexible carbon-fiber rod, the flexible rope and the spine mechanism, self-adaptive grasping and separation between the spine and the wall are achieved. The optimal design of spine-type flying and wall-climbing robot with the ability to fly and crawl on walls is completed, and perching and landing experiments are carried out with the complete machine. By comparing computational results with experimental data, the correctness of the presented dynamic model and the feasibility of the biomimetic design are validated. Through our study, the driving force curve of steering gear for ideal climbing gait is obtained. It is found that buffeting can be suppressed optimally during climbing when the prestressing force of nylon rope is 0.75 N. Meanwhile, the effects of the initial landing speed, the energy conversion and the steering gear lift on landing and perching are analyzed in depth. The results show that the robot can successfully land on the coarse wall surface at an initial speed about 0.9 m/s and a pitch angle about -10°, and the range of initial state for successful landing can be expanded through the coordination of the lift force and the energy conversion of carbon rod.