Towards Penetration-based Clawed Climbing

Despite significant research focused on running robots, very little progress has been made towards legged robots that are capable of climbing in natural environments. Unlike their running counterparts, climbing robots must generate hand or foot holds capable of pulling them toward the substrate. The majority of efforts to develop climbing robots have been for urban settings with smooth glass or metal surfaces where suction and magnetic approaches to generating adhesion are possible. Some examples of robots that have used a suction based approach include [8, 10, 15]; some magnetic based climbers include [2, 13]. A few robots have also addressed climbing on rough rock surfaces, employing strong grips capable of sustaining tensile and shear loads [3, 4]. This paper describes efforts towards the development of a penetrationbased clawed climbing robot capable of climbing on rough or smooth inclines.