Patent ID: 8413747

Claim:
An endless-track climbing vehicle for traversing a climbing surface comprising a chassis, an endless track revolving about the chassis having an interior portion and an exterior portion, with a plurality of adhering members capable of producing an attracting force with the climbing surface and attached to the exterior portion of the endless track and a protrusion such as a flange or rolling element attached to the inner portion of the endless track, a drive mechanism attached to the chassis comprising a drive wheel and drive source, with the drive wheel engaging the interior portion of the endless track for driving the endless track, a suspension apparatus comprising a track link guide, a force distribution member, and a track tensioning device, the track link guide further comprising a plurality of suspension links, the suspension having an adjacent suspension link, the suspension link further having an interior and exterior portion, the interior portion having a slot, with the slot dimensions configured to mate with the protrusion of the endless track, the suspension link connected to the adjacent suspension link with a pivot or slidable connections with the pivots or the slidable connections positioned to maintain a slidable transition of the slot along the suspension links, the force distribution member such as a spring connecting the track link guide to the chassis, the force distribution member selected to uniformly distribute the forces required for climbing along the endless track and the adhering force members, an endless track tensioning device comprising an idler wheel engaging the interior portion of the endless track and supported by the chassis through an elastic member.