WALLY Pneumatic climbing robot

The robot WALLY is a prototype of a service robot designed and built at the laboratories of the Dipartimento Elettrico Elettronico e Sistemistico of CATANIA, with the aim to work in the inspection of the surface of industrial plants, like chimneys, storage tanks, wall of buildings, etc. The robot can be telecontrolled to get to position difficult to be reached or dangerous for a human operator, with an arbitrary slope. Once that the final position has been reached, the system, by using the on-board sensors as cameras, ultrasound sensors, etc, can perform measurements and send them to the operator.

To reduce the weight and the cost of the system the robot is moved by using two single pneumatic actuators, while four suction cups, electrically controlled, guarantee the adhesion with the surface. With a suitable control of the sequence of motion of the two pneumatic pistons, in synchrony with the adhesion of the suction cups, it is possible to move the system in all the directions of the plane.