Research on the influence of the driving wheel and robot posture on climbing capability of a transmission line inspection robot

Climbing capability, as an important index to assess the performance of the power transmission line (PTL) inspection robot, directly concerns the robot practical application. In the former design, in order to enhance the climbing capability, the common method is to choose a drive motor with high torque and a transmission system with large reduction ratio. However, as a matter of fact, climbing capability of the inspection robots using the method mentioned above does not become very satisfied. This article analyzes the influence of posture and drive wheel on the climbing capacity, proposes a new method to improve climbing capability by changing the robot posture during climbing and optimum design for drive wheels, which could enhance the adhesion capability and balance the load, and finally validates the correctness of the proposed method by simulation and experiments. The research contents are also meaningful to some other mobile robots.