VERTICAL CLIMBING LOCOMOTION OF A NEW GECKO ROBOT USING DRY ADHESIVE MATERIAL

摘要

Most of Geckos can move freely on a smooth vertical surface. The wonderful ability of locomotion depended on the countless setae under the geckos' foot which have an effect on van der Waals' force between foot and surface. This kind of force belongs to the dry adhesive force. Many scientists had attempted to understand structure-function and had produced several kinds of dry adhesive material. One of the dry adhesive materials with mushroom-shaped adhesive microstructure (MSAMS) had been selected and firstly applied in vertical locomotion of Gecko robot_6 which was a bioinspired gecko robot with four legs. To apply MSAMS in Gecko robot_6 successfully, the adhesive ability of MSAMS was tested including normal force, tangential force, and the peel-off force curve with different thickness substrates of bio-inspired gecko foot. The new bio-inspired gecko foot with MSAMS was designed, and the Gecko robot_6 can climb on a smooth vertical surface (glass) stably using dry adhesive material with MSAMS.