Design of low power consumption negative pressure generator of a sliding wall climbing robot

WU Shanqiang, HUANG Peipei, WU Lijun, MAO Tangsheng
(Mechatronics Institute, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China)

Abstract: In order to solve the problems of sliding wall climbing robots great power consumption and low efficiency design, a negative pressure generator of the low power consumption and high efficiency was investigated. After the analysis of robots pressure needed and flow leakage fluid dynamics, the relationship between negative working pressure, suction mechanisms leakage flow and size of suction cup, sealing mechanism was established. With the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, a low noise and high efficiency centrifugal fan was designed and the performances of low pressure generator were evaluated. The robots overall power consumption under variable conditions were tested. The experimental results show that the power consumption is below 298 W, while 2.5 kPa negative pressure can be stably generated so that robot can stick firmly on wall. The theoretical and experimental result of research on wall climbing robot contributes to further perfecting the performance of robot.
Key words: wall climbing robot; negative pressure generator; low power consumption design