Three-dimensional dynamic surface grasping with dry adhesion

Abstract

Most robotic grasping research focuses on objects that are either not large in comparison to the gripper or have small graspable features; however, there are important applications that involve large flat or gently curved surfaces. Examples include robots that grasp the solar panels of space craft, handle large panels in manufacturing, or climb or perch on surfaces. We present a solution for grasping such surfaces consisting of groups of tiles coated with a controllable geckoinspired adhesive. The tiles are loaded with two sets of tendons: one for distributing the forces evenly while grasping and the other for release. The gripper is passive and can attach and detach with little effort so that it does not disturb either the robot or the object to be grasped. The maximum gripping force in the normal direction can be over 1000 times greater than the required detaching force. The gripper is also fast, allowing a flying quadrotor to attach to a surface milliseconds after the tiles make contact. We present a model of the gripping mechanism and use the model to design the layout of the tiles to best support anticipated normal and tangential loads.

Touchdown to take-off: at the interface of flight and surface locomotion

“…Many of these surfaces are vertically oriented and hard, and a subset, including glass and metal surfaces, have a very low rugosity. Attachment of robots and animals to these surfaces requires close surface proximity using an adhesive pad or a suction seal (figure 3c,g,k,l,p) [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. Other relatively hard and vertically oriented surfaces include brick, concrete and stucco with many asperities formed by holes and bumps, which facilitate the use of spines (figure 3b,f,j,o) [18,41,[51][52][53][54].…”

“…Under such conditions, aerial robots must exert substantial forces to remain attached or navigate along the surface. Surface attachment solutions include grasping, claws, adhesive pads and suction [18,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. Some prototypes have begun to navigate surfaces with these techniques [41,44,[139][140][141].…”

“…Despite the strict control requirement, pitch-up manoeuvres offer design advantages for surface attachment. In a pitched up configuration, the robot can align its structure more closely to the surface, which minimizes the destabilizing pitch-back moment from the centre of mass with respect to the surface contact points (figure 3b,c) [18,43,51,52,[142][143][144]159].…”

Aerial picking and delivery of magnetic objects with MAVs

“…In [14], a bio-inspired mechanical gripper was designed in order to allow quadcopters to carry objects with large flat or gently curved surfaces. In addition to being small and light, the gripper consists of groups of tiles coated with a controllable adhesive that allows for very easy attachment and detachment of the object.…”

Body-Borne Computers as Extensions of Self

“…PowerSkip [49] is a wearable device that provides leg extensions that help a user jump extremely high, and SpringWalker [50] is a contraption that allows faster and more economic maneuvering with longer legs. Gloves used by NASA [52] change stiffness so that their users can effortlessly hold heavy objects, and gecko-inspired climbing gloves [53] give its wearer a temporary ability to climb on vertical walls. Supernumerary robotics (SR) [39][40][41] is a recently established field of research that studies additional robotic fingers or limbs that support physical tasks by reducing load or aiding in object manipulation.…”