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Gecko Inspired Robot Climbs Walls at Stanford
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."
Just keep in mind that – thanks to the cube/square law and other physical principles – not all biological feats can be scaled up or down.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
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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not all biological feats can be scaled up or down.
Not all biological feets can be scaled up or down.
How much would it cost to insure something like that?
Can it save you money on auto insurance?
A Stanford mechanical engineer is using the biology of a gecko's sticky foot to create a robot that climbs.
My feet stink too but I can't climb like a gecko.
Rereads sentence.
Oh, wait, never mind.
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
Robots that can climb walls, you don't say? Well, I suppose that makes it easier for them to climb into our bedrooms at night to kill us. It'll make the robot uprising that much quicker.
Sorry, already been done, sort of: Spider Boy
he's climbing in your windows snatchin yo people up
Thank you, AC. Perfect case in point.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
Not all biological feets can be scaled up or down.
Not all biological feet can be scaled (up or down).
For some reason when I read the title I immediately thought of: http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Gekko
I like how he begins his post by saying,"Holy crap," and ends it with,"SHUT THE FUCK UP."
Makes perfect sense, actually. Feces are more filthy than sex and must be rendered sanitary.
I'm getting bored to tears by all these "science imitates nature" articles. Since childhood I must have read about the velcro background a hundred times. Will I have to put up with yet another dozen gecko geek articles over the next few years?
The TFA doesn't mention prior efforts. Here's one -- From an April 2009 slashdot:
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/09/1927217:
AndreV writes "Biomimetic adhesives aren't new, but a PhD graduate in British Columbia has developed a new method of creating microscopic, mushroom-like plastic structures in order to produce a dry adhesive that mimics the stickiness of gecko feet—and is prepping his glue-free innovation for outer space. A research group at his university, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, is engineering a spider-like, sticky-footed climbing robot destined to explore Mars, and it is also developing reusable attaching systems for astronauts to use where magnetic and suction systems generally fail. In the future, he says, single-use versions could be used in any number of medical applications as well as for replacements for everyday sticky needs, such as Post-It notes and Scotch tape."
The Indian monitor lizard is also known for wedging itself tightly into crevices and holding onto rocks. It was famously used by the Marathas to scale the walls of a fortress during the battle of Sinhagad by tying a rope to its tail and releasing it to climb the wall.
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
I took the post to be an humourous remark.
Why can't we let people believe whatever they like? It's not like a little religion has ever hurt anyone.
Does this mean blazing foxes can now climb glass surfaces?
From TFA: "Cutkosky has collaborated with scientists from [...] a robot-building company called Boston Dynamics."
http://www.bostondynamics.com/robot_rise.html
You'd think science would have nature completely imitated by now.
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.
I'm surrounded by the little fellas (geckos). Ubiquitous in the tropics. Long wanted to be able to climb like them. Thinking this won't be my chance.
Khao Yai Land
Irritated by Slashdot's anti-Apple bias and hostility? A recent example, they post anti-iPad tirades but don't mention negative reviews of flash on mobile devices: (laptopmag.com).
You're an idiot. Perhaps you'd listen to the people who dislike Apple's Flash ban before going on about conspiracies.
It doesn't matter if Flash sucks on mobile devices, it sucks on full-powered PCs. Most of us hate it regardless just for its fucked-up UIs and instability. But we don't want anyone telling us what software we can't use. I've had a few instances on the PC where I've had to view a Flash document, like needing to open a .doc file. If it was an anti-flash warning, or flash-blocker installed by default, we'd probably never want to go around it but an absolute block on ever running the software just isn't acceptable.
In iOS you're restricted to what everyone else can handle. Welcome to kindergarten, here's your paste.
Yeah, both of these are nice!
Did you see this - http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1769820&cid=33406858
IOW, /. ad infinitum :)
"feet modeled on the intricate design of gecko toes"
Interesting. I thought they evolved. ;-)
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
Correction- the dude is from Berkeley.
Covered here before, http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/06/05/23/2146232/Robo-Gecko-Climbs-Glass
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!