When climbing vertical or inclined surfaces, insects utilize claws, tibial spines, and tarsal pads to create attachment forces. These devices allow them to climb on a variety of substrates, including those that are smooth, soft, or porous. Recent advances in materials may make long-lasting dry adhesives and arrays of sharp hooks feasible attachment mechanisms for small robots. Mini-WhegsTM are a series of robots that use rotating wheel-legs driven by a single motor for locomotion. By testing specially designed wheel-legs with office tape, pairs of spines, and Velcro®, this work demonstrates the feasibility of applying novel adhesives and frictional materials passively on simple rotating legs. The resulting robot climbs vertical fabric surfaces with Velcro®, crosses ceilings with Scotch® tape, and climbs steep concrete inclines with sharp spines and provides a test-platform for future adhesive materials such as dry adhesive tape.
Current Mars exploration and science is limited to orbiters and areas close to original rover landing sites. Most of the places of geological interest lay many kilometers outside of suitable landing sites. In-situ resources such as wind can enable rovers to travel great distances on Mars while using little internal power. In this paper, a dynamic model of an individual wind driven rover is used to enhance a stochastic simulation of multiple rovers traversing the Martian environment. The results from this simulation support the claim that a group of rovers equipped with minimal control mechanisms or internal energy sources can autonomously disperse and explore Mars.
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