Analysis of Sliding Suction Cups for Negative Pressure Adhesion of a Robot Climbing on Concrete Walls

The success and efficiency of wall-climbing robots is not only a question of closed-loop control and electronics. Also materials have a large influence on the operability to make the systems light-weighted or more robust. This paper presents findings based on experiments to find an optimal material for inflatable adaptive sealings. Demands of such sliding sealings are robustness and good sliding characteristics but also fexibility for high sealing performances. The paper gives an overview on several materials and on their characteristics.