Design and Analysis of a Separable Tree-Climbing Robot for Forest Pest Control
Abstract
To address the need for close-range and precise trunk-level operations in forest pest control, this paper proposes a separable tree-climbing robot for continuous multi-tree operation. Unlike conventional integrated tree-climbing robots that carry most supply components onboard, the proposed system places the power source, pesticide tank, and air source on a ground mobile base, while connecting them to a lightweight climbing unit through an umbilical cable. This separable architecture decouples ground transfer and trunk-attached operation, reducing the payload of the climbing unit while maintaining the supply capacity required for repeated field operation. To achieve trunk attachment, climbing, branch crossing, and recovery, an adaptive climbing mechanism is designed with diameter adaptation, pneumatic clamping, stepwise climbing, and circumferential branch-crossing capabilities. A docking mechanism is further developed to enable reliable release and recovery of the climbing unit. In addition, a synthetic trunk-damage dataset is constructed to support vision-based damage detection. Mechanical analysis and experimental results verify the feasibility of the proposed robot in structural design, climbing operation, docking recovery, and visual detection, providing a practical robotic solution for close-range automated forest pest control.