Abstract: Many animals exhibit strong mechanical interlocking in order to achieve efficient climbing against rough surfaces by using their claws in the pads. To maximally use the mechanical interlocking, an innovative robot which utilizes flexible pad with claws is designed. The mechanism for attachments of the claws against rough surfaces is further revealed according to the theoretical analysis. Moreover, the effects of the key parameters on the performances of the climbing robots are obtained. It indicates that decreasing the size of the tip of the claws while maintaining its stiffness unchanged can effectively improve the attachment ability. Furthermore, the structure of robot body and two foot trajectories are proposed and the new robot is presented. Using experimental tests, it demonstrates that this robot has high stability and adaptability while climbing on vertical rough surfaces up to a speed of 4.6 cm•s−1.

Key words: mechanical interlocking, rough surface, bionic climbing robot, claw