An investigation into improved non-contact adhesion mechanism suitable for wall climbing robotic applications

Pneumatic, non-contact end effectors for robotic pick-and-place applications use compressed air to provide an adhesion force based on the Bernoulli principle, which creates a low pressure region near the surface of the end effector. However, consideration of the influence of the Bernoulli principle alone gives an inadequate account of the performance of some end effector designs. In fact, end effector geometry can be constructed in such a way that the Bernoulli principle provides only a small contribution to the overall adhesion force. This paper investigates the role of viscous flow entrainment in improving adhesion efficiency. Both simulation and experimental results show a significant improvement of adhesion force by nearly five times over a commercially available Bernoulli gripper, which makes the improved adhesion mechanism suitable for more demanding wall climbing robotic applications.