Behavior-Based Adhesion Control System for Safe Adherence of Wall-Climbing Robots

Safe adhesion is a large research area in the field of climbing robots. Many robotic systems use well-known magnetic adhesion or mechanical connections like claws, some others use classic closed-loop controllers in combination with negative pressure adhesion to ensure operation safety. This paper will introduce important safety aspects of the climbing robot cromsci which has a negative pressure system, an adaptive inflatable sealing and an omni-directional drive. We will illustrate the novel behavior-based closed-loop controller architecture which has different control levels — starting from individual chamber pressure controllers up to an overall force control. Experimental results will show the performance of the complete behavioral network.