Habilitationskolloquium

Dienstag, 8. Februar 2011
um 16:15 Uhr
Vogt-Kölln-Straße 30
Raum F-334

Houxiang Zhang, Ph.D.

Integration of Biological Inspirations and Modular Approach for Designing Climbing Robots

The last decade has seen an increasing interest in developing and employing climbing mobile robots for industrial inspection, conducting surveillance and urban search tasks. Even though significant progress has been made in this field worldwide, the technology of climbing and walking robots is still a challenging research topic. Traditional climbing robots, which are relatively big and heavy, rely on complex kinematics models of their system as well as an equally complex model of the environment with which they interact.

In the presentation, I will introduce my research work on mobile robotic systems, especially on climbing technology, modular robots and related issues. First a systematic summary of the research on climbing robots is given. Related aspects including locomotion realization and adhesion principles of climbing robots are investigated thoroughly. The basic functions and some challenging issues of climbing robots are also discussed.

In order to deal with the current technical problems of designing flexible walking and climbing robots on a miniature scale, natural climbing mechanisms are investigated. Based on the analysis of the movement of natural caterpillars, combining climbing techniques with the concept of a modular robotic approach, a novel bio-inspired modular climbing caterpillar robot currently developed with the support of the DFG is introduced as an example to confirm our concepts. The goal of this research is to develop a flexible climbing robotic platform featuring an easy-to-build mechanical structure, a low-frequency vibrating passive attachment principle and various locomotion capabilities. The relevant research issues of the project and a prospect on future work are presented.

Kontakt

Prof. Dr. Christopher Habel
Vorsitzender des Habilitationsprüfungsausschusses

Telefon 2417