Article Abstract

	Title:	Distributed control of hexapod wall climbing robot implementing Controller Area Network (CAN)
	Author:	Nkgatho Sylvester Tale, Glen Bright, W.L. Xu
	Address:	Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa. ' Institute of Engineering and Technology, College of Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. ' Institute of Engineering and Technology, College of Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
	Journal:	International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications 2005 - Vol. 1, No.1/2  pp. 66 - 78
	Abstract:	Service robots have been used in tasks that require navigation of horizontal or near horizontal surfaces. Some applications require service robots that are capable of moving along a vertical plane e.g., wall painting, window washing, non-destructive testing (NDT), surveillance, etc. The controller of a wall climbing robot that has many actuators and many sensors is difficult to design because of safety issues. If a central controller is used, a failure in one part of the system can result in a failure of the complete system. This can result in the robot's safety mechanisms failing and the robot falling from the wall. This paper describes the design of a wall climbing robot that implements many actuators and sensors; the hexapod wall climbing robot. Controller Area Network (CAN) is implemented as a distributed controller of such a robot. The distributed controller is described in detail and its performance analysed.
	Keywords:	mechatronics; service robots; wall climbing robots; distributed control; hexapod robots; CAN; controller area networks; robot safety; robot design; robot actuators; robot sensors; biomechatronics.
	DOI:	10.1504/IJISTA.2005.007330
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