Structural Design and Kinematic Analysis of a Quadruped Climbing Robot for Wind Turbine Blade Maintenance

With the rapid growth of the global wind energy market, the operation and maintenance of large-scale wind turbine blades has become a major challenge. The traditional manual operation platforms face problems of high cost, low efficiency, and security risks. Therefore, a biomimetic quadruped wall climbing robot for blade inspection and maintenance is introduced in this study. The robot includes a novel 3-DOF leg mechanism with a passive angle compensation module and a bidirectional spring damping system, allowing it to adapt to complex curved blade surfaces and absorb impacts during movement. The kinematic model of the leg mechanism is established on the basis of D-H parameters, and a fifth degree polynomial is used for trajectory planning to ensure smooth contact. The simulation and calculation results show that the robot with the vacuum chuck can move stably, providing a potential design solution for the automation operation and maintenance of wind turbine blades.