Synchro-Drive-Based Underwater Climbing Adsorption Robot

This article proposes an underwater climbing adsorption robot. The robot avoids coming into contact with adsorbates by using a mechanism of negative pressure adsorption based on Bernoulli's theorem, which allows it to generate a maneuverable force. A synchro-drive locomotion mechanism is developed to boost the maneuverability of the robot such that it can carry out omnidirectional motion using the least mechanical parts. Discrete and continuous modes of locomotion are proposed and verified to enable the robot to follow a complex path, and a switch strategy to balance its adsorption and locomotion is developed. In stationary operation mode, the adsorption force can be increased by reducing the gap to maintain the stability of the robot when carrying loads. In the motion mode, the size of the gap is increased to lend the robot a powerful obstacle-surmounting capacity when it moves on rough and curved surfaces. The results show that the proposed robot has the advantages of being non-contact, and having high adsorption and mobility that are suitable for challenging operations on a variety of underwater structural surfaces.