The Sumitomo robot with magnetic wheels that climbs steel walls

Japan's Sumitomo Heavy Industries has developed a robot that can travel over curved steel walls by using magnetic adhesion as part of a push to automate manufacturing tasks at its industrial sites.

Wheeled robots with magnetic adhesion are relatively common in the manufacturing sector and used in the maintenance of large steel structures like ships and industrial facilities.

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Most conventional wall climbing robots are designed for flat surfaces. To adapt such robots to curved surfaces, the robot must either be smaller than the curvature of the surface or be designed to fit a particular surface shape and direction of travel. This means that these robots are limited in the range of surfaces they can travel on, the tasks they can perform, and the types of tools they can mount.

In developing its robot, Sumitomo invented a novel spherical wheel containing a magnet that is able to rotate around two axes. This way, the robot can adapt and travel over curved surfaces that have not been possible before with conventional robots.

In addition to travelling over curved walls, the new robot can also easily attach and detach from walls by changing the magnetic force direction and can climb over corners without the need for any complicated controls.

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When building large steel structures, certain tasks such as welding at heights or curved surfaces have proven difficult to automate and require advanced skills. Sumitomo says that its robot is able to be used for such tasks, thus reducing the physical burden on human workers, as well as being safer, and making manufacturing sites smarter.

The company says it is now continuing to develop the robot's practical abilities, such as inspection, arc welding and cutting at manufacturing sites.

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