Stanford University researchers have developed robots that are able to climb walls and haul cargos up to 100 their weight. The mighty bots will be presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Seattle Washington (May 26-30, 2015).
The secret to their controllable adhesion is the same as with geckos. Each toe of geckos is covered with flaps of skin called lamellae. These are then covered by arrays of tiny hair-like structures known as setae. As the robot climbs, its synthetic feet are gripped by tiny rubber spikes. When pressure is applied to the spikes, they bend, increasing their surface area which makes them more stickier. The spikes become straighter when the robot picks up its feet. This tiny robot, with its sticky feet resembling geckos, can lift more than 100 of its weight.
The robot moves in a manner similar to the inchworm. One pad pushes forward, while the other supports the weight.
This arrangement prevents the tiny machine from falling in case it misses one step. The arrangement allows the machine to stay stationary and saves battery power. It’s a mean lifter. The Stanford engineers created this little robot to be much more powerful than its appearance suggests. The robot weighs 9 grams (0. The 31oz bot is capable of pulling a one-kilogram weight up a wall. This weight is greater than 100 its own. This is like a 70kg person pulling a large male African elephant.
A super-mini bot is also available, which weighs in at 20 grams (0. 0007oz can also carry 500 milligrams (0 .0176oz). Elliot Hawkes is a graduate student in mechanical engineering who built the bot using a tiny tweezer and a microscope. The bot nicknamed mTug is the most amazing. The bot weighs 12g (0. 42oz) can carry a load that is two-thousands times its weight.
According to The New Scientist, David Christensen (a PhD candidate) said that mTug can pull a load two-thousand time heavier than its own weight. Hawkes and Christensen believe this could lead to heavy lifting robots in factories. They could also be useful in emergencies, such as carrying a rope ladder for someone trapped in a burning building. These robots will be used in many industries.
They need to make larger ones and figure out how to attach adhesives to their feet. Hawkes climbs walls. Last year, people were able to see Hawkes sticking out of the sheer glass side of a Stanford building. This was his dissertation research. Hawkes was part of a group that developed a reusable, controllable adhesive material. This could not only bond well with smooth surfaces but can also be released quickly.
Hawkes scales a glass wall using gecko-inspired dry adhesives. Image: Stanford University. Performance tends to drop when you use gecko-inspired adhesives.
Hawkes and his colleagues devised a way to distribute large loads evenly over every area of adhesive. Hawkes stated that it was fun but not as easy to grip glass. It’s almost like you expect to fall off. But when it doesn’t you are surprised. It is quite exhilarating.” Video: A powerful robot hauls heavy loads. This New Scientist video features two robots that use methods borrowed from inchworms and geckos to scale walls while carrying large loads.
