Basic research on configuration of climbing worm robot

Two novel module climbing caterpillar kinematics models according to the vermicular motion of the pine caterpillar and inchworm were presented. The differences of two models were indicated after the analysis of the valid gaits and climbing safety of them. Although the pine caterpillar model with all active joints introduces the redundant actuating to its locomotion but it has higher security than the inchworm model because of its more valid gaits. Two prototypes following the above two models were respectively constructed from some newly developed real adhesion and actuation modules to testify the climbing abilities of two caterpillar-like robots. The experiments show the sideslip of the suckers on the pine caterpillar robot induced by the redundant actuating and the locomotion ability of the inchworm robot on vertical wall. Besides that, an unsymmetrical gait was adopted by the inchworm robot to improve its adhesion reliability on the wall.