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Robo-Gecko Climbs Glass

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the going-up-the-slippery-slope-instead dept.

galactic_grub writes "Researchers at Stanford have developed a robot that mimics the extraordinary climbing skills of the Gecko. These creatures can climb sheer surfaces thanks to the intermolecular forces exerted by millions of tiny hairs their feet, called setae. The robot, Stickybot, has polymer pads on its feed with synthetic setae. Check out the video of it climbing up a sheet of glass."

4 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Obligatory by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 4, Informative
    Just imagine the benefits to burglars, the next invention is going to have to be some very very slippery paint :)

    Already invented... you're looking for Fluoroplastic Paint.

  2. video url by user24 · · Score: 4, Informative

    the site's not loading for me in firefox (it says infinite redirect loop, though it works in *spit* MSIE)
    here's the video URL:
    http://bdml.stanford.edu/twiki/pub/Main/StickyBot/ Stickybot_040106.mov

  3. Re:The Article. Shocked this is new by Oxen · · Score: 5, Informative

    It has only been in the last several years that scientists realized that gecko's use VDW forces to clime. It may seem obvious, but no one imagined that it would be possible to create enough VDW interactions to allow a large animal to stick to any surface. It works by simply increasing the surface contact to a ridiculous degree. What is amazing here is that this will work on any solid, clean surface. There are an extraordinary number of applications. Another huge benefit to this is that no energy is required to maintain adhesion.

    --
    First you animate. Then you SUSPEND!!!
  4. This works even better than the article says by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative
    Cutkowsky has had this technology working for several years now. It's not just for glass; it works on many other building surfaces, too, like concrete walls. It doesn't require a smooth surface. They've had robots climbing up buildings at Stanford for a while now.

    Here's the web site for the project.

    They have a new and powerful fabrication technique, too. They use a stereolithography machine to make their parts, but they use it in an unusual way. They use a machine that's intended to make multicolored objects from several different colored materials, and load it up with materials with different physical and electrical properties. So they can make a one-piece 3D part with soft parts and hard parts, or insulating parts and conductive parts. This is the beginning of a whole new kind of fabrication, which is what Cutkowsky is really into.