Climbing robot with minimal structure

The wall-climbing robot 'Zigzag' is one of a succession of mobile robots devised at Portsmouth Polytechnic. Earlier robots each have twelve degrees of freedom and are controlled by a computing hierarchy in which microcontrollers are dedicated to each leg. In contrast, Zigzag has but one degree of freedom and strictly has no legs at all. It is controlled at present by direct command from a desk-top computer. The extreme mechanical and electronic simplicity has many advantages which offset the restriction of zigzags to smooth unbroken surfaces. The most obvious is that of low cost, making their application much more appealing than more elaborate machines. In prototype form, the computer interface affords maximum accessibility for project work in teaching even at undergraduate or school level.