14 DAY TRIAL // Afraid of heights? Robotics offers the perfect solution to cure your acrophobia when going for dangerous tasks that can involve life-threatening situations as well as huge economic costs. No matter the scenario, robotic machines are increasingly offering the safer alternative in a number of industrial situations.
Following the same trend in the industry, International Climbing Machines (ICM) has announced the success of its uniquely designed climbing machines. The new series is said to be more portable, as well as entirely remote-controlled. As Gizmag reports, the devices can also scale virtually any vertical or inverted surface.
But more important is that they can actually replace the human work in numerous difficult assignments, which involve remote measuring and climbing the surfaces of C-5 and C-137 air planes or else. They can even give a helping hand to the decontaminating process of a vessel in a Nuclear Power Plant. What's really new about the series is the device's ability to climb and remove paint from concrete walls for the Department Of Energy (DoE).
One of the bots in the series was nicknamed "The Climber", mostly because it can scale walls, ceilings or tough rounded surface. Moreover, it is said to have a cool ability to overcome difficult surfaces, contours and obstacles as big as 1 inch off the surface.
The high tech secret behind this particular machine is its use of a rolling seal which gives it an impressive payload capacity of 100 pounds, as well as its capacity of dealing with delicate surfaces without causing damage.
As expected, the whole system is fully controlled from ground level via a hand-held controller. In addition, it features a range of interchangeable on-board tools for tasks such as cleaning, applying and removing coatings, drilling and cutting. Gizmag reports that more versatility is provided by the integration of imaging and dimensioning cameras for remote visual inspection. These gizmos allow various testing that can provide info on wall thickness, corrosion or stress cracking.
Just like an iRobot I know, this device also gathers waste using a vacuum capture function. As the makers put it, there are several additional capabilities under development such as a pressure fed roller and spray applicator, which should add points and extra abilities as the one that allows the device to repair cracks and sand and water blasting.
No price tag and availability, yet!
