A biped walking robot capable of moving on a vertical wall

The use of a wall-climbing robot for purposes such as rescue, wall inspection and fire-fighting on high-rise buildings has been anticipated for a long time. Three different types of wall-climbing robots have been developed in Japan. The first one has a large area sucker, which has the reverse mechanism of a hovercraft. This type can be used only on flat and wide surfaces. The second one has crawlers to move on a vertical wall with many small suckers on them. The third one has a walking mechanism with small suckers on each foot. A biped walking model was built and tested on a vertical wall and a ceiling. The aerodynamic matching between blower performance and required forces of a sucker, as well as the control systems of the robot, are studied in detail.