Stickybot is a bioinspired robot that climbs smooth vertical surfaces such as glass, plastic, and ceramic tile at 4 cm/s. The robot employs several design principles adapted from the gecko including a hierarchy of compliant structures, directional adhesion, and control of tangential contact forces to achieve control of adhesion. We describe the design and fabrication methods used to create underactuated, multimaterial structures that conform to surfaces over a range of length scales from centimeters to micrometers. At the finest scale, the undersides of Stickybot's toes are covered with arrays of small, angled polymer stalks. Like the directional adhesive structures used by geckos, they readily adhere when pulled tangentially from the tips of the toes toward the ankles; when pulled in the opposite direction, they release. Working in combination with the compliant structures and directional adhesion is a force control strategy that balances forces among the feet and promotes smooth attachment and detachment of the toes.

/pdf/smooth-vertical-surface-climbing-with-directional-adhesion-zb2xusy7bv.pdf

Smooth Vertical Surface Climbing With Directional Adhesion

A new approach for climbing hard vertical surfaces has been developed that allows a robot to scale concrete, stucco, brick and masonry walls without using suction or adhesives.The approach is inspired by the mechanisms observed in some climbing insects and spiders and involves arrays of microspines that catch on surface asperities. The arrays are located on the toes of the robot and consist of a tuned, multi-link compliant suspension. The fundamental issues of spine allometric scaling versus surface roughness are discussed and the interaction between spines and surfaces is modeled. The toe suspension properties needed to maximize the probability that each spine will find a useable surface irregularity and to distribute climbing loads among many spines are detailed. The principles are demonstrated with a new climbing robot, SpinybotII, that can scale a wide range of flat exterior walls, carry a payload equal to its own weight, and cling without consuming power. The paper also reports how toe parameters scale with robot mass and how spines have also been used successfully on the larger RiSE robot.

/pdf/scaling-hard-vertical-surfaces-with-compliant-microspine-2mn5qz4kor.pdf

Scaling Hard Vertical Surfaces with Compliant Microspine Arrays

We describe the design and control of a new bio-inspired climbing robot designed to scale smooth vertical surfaces using directional adhesive materials. The robot, called Stickybot, draws its inspiration from geckos and other climbing lizards and employs similar compliance and force control strategies to climb smooth vertical surfaces including glass, tile and plastic panels. Foremost among the design features are multiple levels of compliance, at length scales ranging from centimeters to micrometers, to allow the robot to conform to surfaces and maintain large real areas of contact so that adhesive forces can support it. Structures within the feet ensure even stress distributions over each toe and facilitate engagement and disengagement of the adhesive materials. A force control strategy works in conjunction with the directional adhesive materials to obtain sufficient levels of friction and adhesion for climbing with low attachment and detachment forces.

/pdf/whole-body-adhesion-hierarchical-directional-and-distributed-4b230gntxd.pdf

Whole body adhesion: hierarchical, directional and distributed control of adhesive forces for a climbing robot

Bridge inspection robot system with machine vision

Climbing robots for maintenance and inspections of vertical structures-A survey of design aspects and technologies

A low-cost lightweight climbing robot for the inspection of vertical surfaces

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A low-cost lightweight climbing robot for the inspection of vertical surfaces