Design of a mobile robot to clean the external walls of oil tanks

This chapter describes a Mechatronics Design methodology applied to the design of a mobile robot to climb vertical surfaces. The first part of this chapter reviews different ways to adhere to vertical surfaces and shows some examples developed by different research groups. The second part presents the stages of Mechatronics design methodology used in the design, including mechanical design, electronics design, and control design. These stages describe the most important topics for optimally successful design. The final part provides results that were obtained in the design process and construction of the robot. Finally, the conclusions of this research work are presented.