Washington, Nov 1 (ANI): Drawing inspiration from geckos, scientists have built a tank-like robot that has the ability to climb up vertical walls, and crawl over ledges without using suction cups, magnets, spines or claws.
Wall-climbing robots could be used to clean windows, inspect buildings, crawl up pipes and help in search-and-rescue operations.
Geckos are lizards belonging to the family Gekkonidae, found in warm climates throughout the world.
The researchers have been able to create adhesives that carefully mimic the toe pads of the lizard that give it the amazing ability to climb smooth vertical surfaces and shuffle across ceilings.
The new 240g robot, also known as the Timeless Belt Climbing Platform (TBCP-II) and developed by researchers at Simon Fraser University Burnaby, is capable of reliably transferring from a flat surface to a wall over both inside and outside corners at speeds of up to 3.4cm/s.
TBCP-II is also fitted with a multitude of sensors that are able to detect the surroundings of the robot and change its course of action accordingly.
"With an adequate power supply, our robot is capable of functioning fairly independently when it encounters larger-scale objects such as boxes or walls," said lead author, researcher Jeff Krahn.
"However, we are still developing a control strategy to ensure the robot is capable of fully autonomous functionality," he added.
The toes of geckos have amazing characteristics that allow them to adhere to most surfaces and research suggests that they work as result of van der Waals forces - very weak, attractive forces that occur between molecules.
These dry, but sticky toe pads, also known as dry fibrillar adhesives, were recreated in the lab using the material polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and were manufactured to contain very small mushroom cap shapes that were 17 micrometers wide and 10 micrometers high.
The study has just been published in IOP Publishing's journal Smart Materials and Structures. (ANI)
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