Design analysis of electro-adhesive mechanism for wall-climbing robot

Electro-adhesive mechanism (EAM) has recently been considered for research studies to be used in a wall-climbing robot. The EAM has the advantage over other adhesion mechanisms due to its suitability to work on various wall surface materials. The main challenges associated with the electro-adhesion are achieving high payload, precise fabrication and integration with the robot locomotion. In the present work, electro-adhesive mechanisms have been considered for analysis, simulation and experimental validation under different design parameters for their suitability in the wall-climbing robot. Design parameters such as shape of the electrode, insulating material and high input voltage for the EAM have been evaluated from the analytical model and finite element model using EMWorks software. These studies show that the different design parameters have a major influence on the generated adhesion force. Simulation and experimental studies have been done for the comparison of two cases, namely simple and comb shape electrode pair design with different insulating materials. The results show that the comb shape electrode pair design of the electro-adhesion mechanism exhibits more adhesion force as compared to the simple electrode pair design. The study also suggests low thickness with high relative permittivity material of the insulating layer can be preferred for the design of the mechanism. An analytical study has been carried out for the suitability of EAM application for wall-climbing robots.