Climbing robots using adhesion force - Gecko robot

  3. Gecko robot

   As the gecko become on issue, a lot of climbing robots mimicking gecko were developed. These robots use dry adhesion force generated by pad which consists lots of microfibers. I will post the representative gecko robot, whose name is sticky bot [1].

   This robot is describing Gecko very well. This robot's system is comprised of 12 servo motor and 38 DOF (Fig. 1(a)). Four servo motors actuate segmented toes using a double-rocker linkage and steel cables in metal sleeves (Fig. 1(b)). It rolls-in to attach and rolls-out for detachment. As each force of setae is about dozens micro newton, it can be detached easily by rolling-out.

Fig. 1 (a) Stickybot and (b) Schematic of cross section view of Stickybot toe fabricated via Shape Deposition Manufacturing.

   It uses anisotropic adhesive for more useful to climb vertical surfaces (Fig. 6)

Fig. 6 Directional stalks comprised of 20 Shore-A polyurethane. Hairs measure 380 μm in diameter at the base. The base angle is 20◦ and the tip angle is 45◦.

   This robot can climb efficiently on smooth plane. But it is hard to climb wet or rough surface as micofibers can be damaged.
 To overcome these problems, it should be used in combination with other things.