Gecko Inspired Robot Climbs Walls at Stanford 56
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."
Gecko-Man, Gecko-Man, does whatever a gecko can... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Gecko-Man, Gecko-Man, does whatever a gecko can (Score:5, Funny)
not all biological feats can be scaled up or down.
Not all biological feets can be scaled up or down.
Re:Gecko-Man, Gecko-Man, does whatever a gecko can (Score:5, Funny)
Not all biological feets can be scaled up or down.
Not all biological feet can be scaled (up or down).
Prototype This...? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:1, Informative)
Make that 4 years ago.... http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/23/2146232
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
First Stickybot [youtube.com] (~2007)
The Gecko-Woman [youtube.com] from the "Prototype This" episode (~2008)
Third Stickybot [youtube.com] (April, this year)
How about Googling the stories before posting them? This is why it's worth checking the firehose [slashdot.org] 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).
Re: (Score:3, 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 hig
I wonder... (Score:2)
How much would it cost to insure something like that?
Can it save you money on auto insurance? (Score:5, Funny)
Can it save you money on auto insurance?
Re: (Score:1)
Stinky feet? (Score:2)
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.
We did it again. (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Intricate Design of Gecko Toes (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Makes perfect sense, actually. Feces are more filthy than sex and must be rendered sanitary.
overreaction? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Could this be enhanced by applying a small electro-static charge?
Not according to this guy from Stanford [ted.com] who starts talking about geckos at 12:40 and claims electrostatic forces have no effect at 17:30.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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 de
Prior art (Score:1)
so dumb so dumb (Score:1)
Metal Gear? (Score:1)
Bored by science imitates nature (Score:2, Insightful)
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?
Yeah (Score:2)
Nice! (Score:2)
Yeah, both of these are nice!
Did you see this - http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1769820&cid=33406858 [slashdot.org]
IOW, /. ad infinitum :)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm getting bored to tears by all these "science imitates nature" articles.
Engineers have been using nature as a source of inspiration for hundreds of years, but clueless journalists "discover" it every few weeks.
The curious thing is that everyone is so keen to take ideas from nature without ever a thought of payment. Haven't they considered that without due recompense nature will stop coming up with ideas for people to imitate?
Not the first effort (Score:1)
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 [slashdot.org]:
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."
Re:Not the first effort (Score:5, Insightful)
You are hereby banned from using acronyms until further notice.
An interesting anecdote (Score:5, Interesting)
Gecko (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Does this mean blazing foxes can now climb glass surfaces?
I saw "gecko", and this being Slashdot I immediately thought of the Firefox rendering engine. I'm a bit surprised it took this long before someone else apparently did the same...
Ahh... So the similarity to RiSE is no accident (Score:1)
From TFA: "Cutkosky has collaborated with scientists from [...] a robot-building company called Boston Dynamics."
http://www.bostondynamics.com/robot_rise.html [bostondynamics.com]
Love the little guys (Score:1)
Designs (Score:2, Insightful)
"feet modeled on the intricate design of gecko toes"
Interesting. I thought they evolved. ;-)
Did you all forget... (Score:2)