A Novel Design of a Wall-Climbing Robot and Experimental Study on Magnetic Wheels

The adhesion of marine organisms will increase resistance and accelerate corrosion of the vessel, so the hull must be cleaned and repaired regularly. At present, underwater cleaning mainly relies on divers carry the cleaning equipment to operate the tool in the water, which is costly and inefficient. Compared with the manual maintenance, the wall-climbing robot can clean and inspect the hull safely, efficiently and at low cost. One of the key technologies of the underwater wall-climbing robot (UWCR) is to ensure that it could attach to the hull to achieve flexible movement and complete safe operations such as cleaning or inspection. In this paper, we present the mechanical design of an UWCR used for inspecting the hull. The novel design of magnetic wheel of the UWCR is discussed in detail. In order to avoid the unstable phenomena such as tumbling or overturning, the static model of the UWCR was established. The ANSOFT MAXWELL is used to simulate the magnetic force provided by the magnetic wheel. The structure of magnetic wheel is optimized based on the simulation result. The experiment verifies the reliability of the magnetic wheel, the motion characteristics of the UWCR and the feasibility of the optimal design.