From the biological model to a small climbing caterpillar robot

This paper presents an overview of an ongoing project on a bio-inspired climbing caterpillar robot. First, an investigation on locomotion kinematics adopted by climbing robots is presented. After that, a related survey on the natural creatures which can climb on vertical surfaces in different materials is given. The special attention is emphasised on the natural caterpillars’ locomotion mechanism. In this project, we combine climbing techniques with a modular approach to realise a novel prototype as a flexible wall climbing robotic platform featuring an easy-to-build mechanical structure, a low-frequency vibrating passive attachment principle and various locomotion capabilities. The research objects, system design and current achievements are presented step by step. In the end, a conclusion is given and the future work is outlined.