A climbing rescue robot

Rescue robotics for disaster response is of relevant practical importance to support rescuers. Main tasks are inspection of collapsed areas and localization of victims. Rescue robots need to be agile in order to penetrate even the smallest openings in the rubble. Often paths in the rubble are steep and climbing ability is required to the rescue robot to move along. The efficacy of locomotion intended as amount and distribution of thrust force transmitted to ground contributes remarkably to determine agility and usability of the robot. A particularly efficient locomotion technique called 'sliding sock' has been proposed. The paper presents the application of sliding sock locomotion to a modular serpentine robot with climbing ability.