Once working at heights is dangerous, it is a significant accident. These accidents brought substantial economic losses and caused a large number of casualties. Therefore, it is essential to use wall-climbing robots to replace manual work at heights. The design of the wall-climbing robot is inspired by the climbing action of insects or animals. An intelligent bionic robot device can carry special equipment to operate on the wall and perform some dangerous operations instead of firefighters or inspection personnel more efficiently. The scope of application is vast. This paper firstly summarizes the research progress of wall-climbing robots with three different moving methods: wheel-climbing, crawler-based, and leg-footed robots; summarizes the applications and breakthroughs of four adsorption technologies: negative pressure, magnetic force, bionic and electrostatic; discusses the application of motion control algorithms in wall-climbing robots. Secondly, the advantages and disadvantages of different migration modes and adsorption methods are pointed out. The distribution and advantages of the combined application of different migration modes and adsorption methods are analyzed. In addition, the future development trend of wall-climbing robots and the promoting effect of bionic technology development on wall-climbing robots are proposed. The content of this paper will provide helpful guidance for the research of wall-climbing robots.