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Robo-Gecko Climbs Glass
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Tue May 23, 2006 07:26 PM
from the going-up-the-slippery-slope-instead dept.
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."
Related Stories
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Science: Scientists Developing Commercially Viable Synthetic Gecko 122 comments
Gordon from Seattle writes to mention a CNN article about a new way to hang out. A British aerospace team is working on a super-sticky substance they're calling "Synthetic Gecko". It mimics the hairs on a gecko's foot, and may eventually be developed as a reusable adhesive. From the article: "Each of the microscopic setae on a gecko's foot has a mushroom shaped cap on the end, less than one-thousandth of a millimeter across. This ensures that the gecko's foot is in very close contact with the surface beneath. The cumulative attractive force, called van der Waals force, of these setae allows the lizard to scurry up walls and ceilings, and even hang from polished glass surfaces. In 2003 scientists at the University of Manchester produced a one centimeter patch of 'gecko tape,' but neither the University of Manchester nor University of California teams managed to produce the material in a greater quantity, unlike Haq and Sargent, who have already tested areas larger than 10 centimeters-squared."
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Technology: Artificial Gecko Adhesive, Now In Experimental Glue 102 comments
thefickler writes "Scientists at the University of Dayton have created a peel-on, peel-off glue which mimics the wall-climbing abilities of Spiderman. The substance, based on the feet of the Gecko lizard, is three times stickier than existing adhesives. The material is so strong that a 4×4mm pad would be enough to hold a 1.5kg object such as a hardcover book. However, it's likely too expensive for consumer use: one British scientist calculates that a single Post-it note using the glue would cost around a thousand dollars." We've mentioned the possibilities of synthetic gecko technology several times before, including as applied in this wall-climbing robot; commercial applications have seemed just around the corner for a while now.
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Technology: Gecko-Inspired Dry Adhesive Set For Space 141 comments
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."
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The Article. Shocked this is new (Score:3, Informative)
A GECKO-like robot with sticky feet could soon be scampering up a wall near you. See a video of the robot in action here (24MB mov file). Geckos can climb up walls and across ceilings thanks to the millions of tiny hairs, or setae, on the surface of their feet. Each of these hairs is attracted to the wall by an intermolecular force called the van der Waals force, and this allows the gecko's feet to adhere. Stickybot, developed by Mark Cutkosky and his team at Stanford University in California, has feet with synthetic setae made of an elastomer. These tiny polymer pads ensure a large area of contact between the feet and the wall, maximising the van der Waals stickiness. The Pentagon is interested in developing gecko-inspired climbing gloves and shoes. Cutkosky says a Stickybot-type robot would also make an adept planetary rover or rescue bot. Frankly, I cant believe this tech couldnt have been done already, even twenty or thirty years ago. I have to imagine we've had the tech to do adhesiveness on demand based on an external stimuli ( such as electricity ) for many years. We have had the ability when the opposite material is metal since atleast the beginning of the space race, but even sticking to any surface on demand shouldnt be too difficult.
My question is, does the armies interest stem from creating an army of spidermen?
Re:The Article. Shocked this is new (Score:4, Funny)
I agree. I don't understand what's involved to make this possible, ego, it must be easy!
Build me one of them search engine thingies. We'll go up against Google!
Parent
Re: The Article. Shocked this is new (Score:3, Insightful)
They also mention the rescue bot - that sounds like a great application for a collapsed building.
Re:The Article. Shocked this is new (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
A common misconception about glass (Score:5, Interesting)
Someone will probably bring up the old glass windows with thick bits at the bottom as an incorrect example of glass flowing (creeping) over time at room temperature. Consider - if you are a very clever person building a Cathedral with very large heavy glass windows of varying cross section, which end would you put at the bottom? The float glass method we use today was not around centuries ago, so builders did not have the nice panes of glass we have today.
The disordered glassy state is also possible in metals and can have some advantages - for instance in an iron based glass the magnetic properties are very good and the strength is high. These materials are made with the right mixture of elements and a very rapid cooling rate (molten to solid in milliseconds) and are not stable at room temperature - but are called "metastable" because it will take centuries at room temperature to diffuse into the stable crystalline structure.
One last thing - crystalline solids like lead alloys flow too with a high enough temperature and stress - like big lead organ pipes hundreds of years old or high pressure steam tubing over a few years. You don't need the glassy structure for creep to occur.
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Re:The Article. Shocked this is new (Score:3, Insightful)
The big problem with gecko gloves or any other application of this principle is keeping them clean. T
Re:The Article. Shocked this is new (Score:5, Interesting)
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/7/6/4/1 [physicsweb.org] has details and pictures of the progress as of 2003; the material worked in the short term, but got clogged with dirt as you mentioned... and the setae stuck to themselves, as can be seen in the second picture there.
Parent
Actually, this isn't new. It's been done before (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/0 9/rfull/robots.html [berkeley.edu]
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar [sfgate.com]
Re:The Article. Shocked this is new (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
A new weapon? (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
Seriously though, FTA "The Pentagon is interested in developing gecko-inspired climbing gloves and shoes." I want some of those, these if ever actually created (not sure what issues here would be but I assume mass, surface area and gravity would play in there somewhere) would have a huge impact on normal life. Just imagine the benefits to burglars, the next invention is going to have to be some very very slippery paint
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Informative)
Already invented... you're looking for Fluoroplastic Paint [daikin.co.jp].
Parent
Re:Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
Otherwise it wouldn't be much fun.
Parent
Flat things do it too (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmmm... (Score:4, Funny)
Utility gecko (Score:5, Funny)
Mirrors, anyone?
-- n
video url (Score:5, Informative)
here's the video URL:
http://bdml.stanford.edu/twiki/pub/Main/StickyBot
Speed (Score:4, Interesting)
Otherwise it was kinda cool.
In other news.... (Score:5, Funny)
University officials were unavailable for comment.
cool but not cool enough (Score:3, Interesting)
Bad Plan, what are they thinking? (Score:5, Funny)
There was the one about the Japanese chick robot followed by the similar South Korean model, then a little farther back we have our artificial "muscle".
Combine those with the story a year or so back about the robots that power themselves by digesting organic matter and frankly all my best nightmares start out on Slashdot. I'll probably be in my 60's when the sexy Japanese carnivorous wall climbing robots with super strength come to get me.
Power of the Gecko (Score:5, Funny)
I don't see that showing up in IE7! Hah!
This works even better than the article says (Score:5, Informative)
Here's the web site for the project. [stanford.edu]
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.
Re:my $0.02 (CDN) (BAD MODS) (Score:5, Funny)
Didn't even bother to read the article, eh, my Candian friend?
"Each of these hairs is attracted to the wall by an intermolecular force called the van der Waals force, and this allows the gecko's feet to adhere."
It's not your comment that pisses me off, it's the fact that it got moderated up... BAD MODS! NO COOKIE!
Parent