Wall Climbing Robot for Inspection of Wall Using Digital Image Processing

Abstract

This paper presents a wall-climbing robot for crack detection on the surface of the wall. It uses active suction cups as the attaching components and servo motors and vacuum pumps to generate motion and adhering capabilities. The proposed robot can move on a wall by attaching suction cups to the wall and removing them from the wall. Active suction cups requires additional energy from the vacuum pumps to maintain adhesion. Therefore, the proposed robot can climb the wall but requires a constant amount of energy supply. The prototype has been designed, fabricated and tested. The primary objective of the robot is to detect cracks. For that purpose the robot uses digital image processing to aid visual inspection. Canny edge detection method is used to detect edges. Images are stored in the database and are later inspected visually by the operator. A Li-Po battery was used to power up the robot. However due to load and large number of servos motors of high torque capacities being used, the battery drained quickly and could not supply continuous power. A new model which improves the powering problems is thus being designed