There have been plenty of previous attempts to build robots capable of climbing up challenging vertical environments. Of these, the most impressive thus far used tiny hairs called setae on their footpads to adhere to surfaces. These hairs mimic a gecko’s method of climbing up walls, and hence, are limited in their payload capacity - the bots can only carry their own weight. A team of researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich recently took a creative approach implementing the innate fluid flow-like properties of thermoplastics to a bot’s footpads - allowing it to melt and cool its sticky feet up vertical terrains.
Thermoplastics (TPAs) are polymers that melt and cool at specific temperatures that are generally controllable with embedded electronics. Since the transient states of TPAs are associated to the reformation of polymer chains by intermolecular forces, the material can achieve a high payload capacity when solid and a crack-filling, tacky state when softened.
The Swiss scaling bot contains TPAs on its footpads - thermal resistors are used to heat its pads above 70C when a foot needs to move or begin to adhere to a surface by melting onto it. Then, embedded thermoelectrics are used to cool the pad to a solid state. This method repeats itself as the robot sticks and unsticks its way of a vertical surface.
To test out their design, the Swiss team of researchers prepped a series of “complex vertical terrains” to challenge the bots tacky feet. In one test, a two-foot scaling bot was able to carry a 7kg weight up walls made of wood, plastic, stone, and aluminum. Unlike previous scaling robot attempts, the Swiss bot carried 7 times its weight with an 80-100% success rate - weighing in at just under 1kg.
The next step is for the researchers to begin tests in natural environments, such as cliffs, mountain sides, trees, etc - a feat no other payload carrying robot climbers have yet to handle well. Make sure to check out the video below to see the Swiss bot climber in action.
Only known video, courtesy of NewScientist
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