Abstract: A wall-climbing mobile platform of a robot for repairing hydraulic turbine blade on site is developed. The mobile platform is equipped with ferro-magnetic adhesive devices, and it can work on spatial curved surface. The contradiction between moving mobility and adhesion ability and the problem of self-adaptation to curved face existing during the operation of the mobile platform are analyzed. The scheme of using dif-ferential-driven wheeled locomotion with ferro-magnetic adhe-sive devices is used to solve problems above. The platform adheres to the blade’s surface by the force provided by ferro-magnetic devices, and certain gap exists between the magnetic devices and the blade’s surface. A mechanism of three revoluting degrees of freedom, connecting the magnetic devices with the platform’s chassis, is developed to make the platform self-adaptive to the complex curved surface of the turbine blade. A prototype is manufactured, and experiments prove success of the mobile platform. The payload of the zero-turn-radius mo-bile platform with excellent maneuverability exceeds 80 kg, and the platform can adapt to complex spatial surfaces auto-matically, such results satisfy the requirements of hydraulic turbine blade in-situ repair robot.

Key words: Curved-face self-adaptation, Hydraulic turbine blade Moving mobility and adhesion ability, Repair robot, Wall-climbing mobile platform