RoboClimb: A Wall Climbing Robot with a Robotic Arm for Elevated Operations

The Project

In November 2014, window cleaner Pedro Perez fell eleven stories from a window-washing platform. He landed on a moving vehicle on the street below and suffered extensive injuries but miraculously survived. While cleaning the windows, he disconnected the lanyard to his safety harness to get to a hard-to-reach area and lost his balance. Another near-miss that garnered significant national attention was when two window cleaners got stranded 69 stories up the face of the new World Trade Center in the same month and year as the incident described above. I have developed RoboClimb, A wall climbing robot with a robotic arm that can perform elevated operations like window cleaning, wall painting, and replacing high-mounted light bulbs. RoboClimb will help reduce injuries due to high-risk jobs like window washing of high-rise buildings. RoboClimb is powered by a 12V Lipo Battery that creates suction using a high-powered brushless motor and fan that enables it to stick to the wall and move around the building without falling. I have used Raspberry Pi to act as the robot's computer. I have used Python programming language and a Bluetooth gaming controller to operate the robot. The RoboClimb project offers a promising solution to address the high-risk tasks in the multi-story building structures performed at the elevation.

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Team Comments

In November 2014, window cleaner Pedro Perez fell eleven stories from a window-washing platform. He landed on a moving vehicle on the street below and suffered extensive injuries but miraculously survived. This gave me an idea of creating a robot that can climb walls and do elevated operations.

I first used different DC Motors and I changed them because they didn't have enough power to move the robot. I used a different Brushless Motor and fan, I changed it because it didn't create enough suction for the robot. I also had to try various of times to create the right codes for the robot.

Yes, instead of using one fan for the robot to create suction to stick to the wall, I would add two fans so the robot could more easily climb and stick to the wall.