May 23, 2010 16:31 WSPC - Proceedings Trim Size: 9in x 6in clawar10 1 Biomimetic inspiration in climbing robots Mahmoud Tavakoli and Lino Marques Institute of Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Portugal Fabio Bonsignorio Heron Robots srl, Genova, Italy, and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain This paper discusses the state of the art on biomimetic inspiration in climbing robots. It also studies the anatomical specialization of climbing animals and their application on current climbing robots. Keywords : Biomimetic inspiration; climbing robots; climbing animals 1. Introduction While there are several ways to climb a wall using various different methods not previously observed in nature using, for example, wheels for the mobility and vacuum or electromagnetic force for the adhesion to the surface to be climbed, in nature, climbing is performed by crawling, snaking and, more often in more complex intelligent natural systems, with a combination of legs and grippers. In some cases, like in the squirrels, two or more grippers are specialized as hands. 2. Arboreal climbers and their anatomical specialization There are a diverse range of climbing animals; Animals that spend much of their time moving on steep, vertical, or overhanging surfaces and have ap- propriate adaptations for such kind of locomotion. Climbing animals can be roughly divided into two groups: those animals which move steep, vertical, or overhanging surfaces (surface locomotion), and those who move among tall vegetation (arboreal locomotion). These two environments may pro- duce quite different climbing methods. However, in some cases the climbing methods are similar, especially for small animals for which a rockface and a tree trunk may present similar problems for locomotion. 1 Anatomical specializations of arboreal locomotion climbing animals includes: