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Gecko Inspired Robot Climbs Walls at Stanford

Posted by timothy on from the needs-to-be-at-thinkgeek dept.

telomerewhythere writes "Stanford mechanical engineer Mark Cutkosky is using the biology of a gecko's sticky foot to create a robot that climbs. In the same way the small reptile can scale a wall of slick glass, the Stickybot can climb smooth surfaces with feet modeled on the intricate design of gecko toes. The team's new project involves scaling up the material for humans. A technology called Z-Man, which would allow humans to climb with gecko adhesive, is in the works."

5 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Prototype This...? by Omega+Hacker · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apparently /. missed seeing this episode something like 2 years ago, where they tried this as well as another tech for climbing. The gecko foot was very hard to reproduce and didn't have the cling, while feet made of 100's of jointed fish-hooks successfully took a human a few dozen feet up a wall. Yay for old news...

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    1. Re:Prototype This...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Make that 4 years ago.... http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/23/2146232

    2. Re:Prototype This...? by derGoldstein · · Score: 2, Informative

      Here's the history:

      First Stickybot (~2007)
      The Gecko-Woman from the "Prototype This" episode (~2008)
      Third Stickybot (April, this year)

      How about Googling the stories before posting them? This is why it's worth checking the firehose often. There are plenty of good stories that are skipped for reasons I can't fathom, but "olds" are posted whenever they need to plug a hole in the news stream (usually on the weekend).

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    3. Re:Prototype This...? by camperslo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Apparently /. missed seeing this episode something like 2 years ago...

      There have been recent advances, the Stanford researcher is having better results than previous work mentioned in the earlier articles. From this one:

      "The newest versions of the adhesive, developed in 2009, have a two-layer system, similar to the gecko's lamellae and setae. The "hairs" are even smaller than the ones on the first version - about 20 micrometers wide, which is five times thinner than a human hair. These versions support higher loads and allow Stickybot to climb surfaces such as wood paneling, painted metal and glass."

  2. Re:Can effect be enhanced by electro-statics? by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2, Informative

    Could this be enhanced by applying a small electro-static charge?

    Not according to this guy from Stanford who starts talking about geckos at 12:40 and claims electrostatic forces have no effect at 17:30.