Walking inverted on ceilings with wheel-legs and micro-structured adhesives

Breckwoldt, William A.; Daltorio, Kathryn A.; Heepe, Lars; Horchler, Andrew D.; Gorb, Stanislav N.; Quinn, Roger D.

doi:10.1109/iros.2015.7353837

Cited by 28 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…67 Gecko-inspired adhesion has been utilized by climbing robots of different scales to move on smooth inclined surfaces. [68][69][70][71][72][73][74] Magnetic adhesion relies on generating a magnetic force by using permanent magnets, electromagnets, or electro-permanent magnets. Magnetic adhesion has the advantage of facile control, but it works only on ferromagnetic surfaces.…”

Section: Climbing Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ability to navigate complex unstructured environments and carry out inspection tasks requires robots to be capable of climbing inclined surfaces and to be equipped with a sensor payload. These features are desirable for robots that are used to inspect and monitor offshore energy platforms. Existing climbing robots mostly use rigid actuators, and robots that use soft actuators are not fully untethered yet. Another major problem with current climbing robots is that they are not built in a modular fashion, which makes it harder to adapt the system to new tasks, to repair the system, and to replace and reconfigure modules. This work presents a 450 g and a 250 • 250 • 140 mm modular, untethered hybrid hard/soft robot-Limpet II. The Limpet II uses a hybrid electromagnetic module as its core module to allow adhesion and locomotion capabilities. The adhesion capability is based on negative pressure adhesion utilizing suction cups. The locomotion capability is based on slip-stick locomotion. The Limpet II also has a sensor payload with nine different sensing modalities, which can be used to inspect and monitor offshore structures and the conditions surrounding them. Since the Limpet II is designed as a modular system, the modules can be reconfigured to achieve multiple tasks. To demonstrate its potential for inspection of offshore platforms, we show that the Limpet II is capable of responding to different sensory inputs, repositioning itself within its environment, adhering to structures made of different materials, and climbing inclined surfaces.

show abstract

Section: Climbing Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A number of different physical mechanisms can be used to selectively and controllably attach and detach from surfaces including electromagnetism [32], electroadhesion [33], dry adhesion [34], and tunable microstructure [35].…”

Section: An Electropermanent Footmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discretely assembled walking machines

Langford

2020

J Micro-Bio Robot

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We introduce a discrete approach to robotic construction that enables the integration of structure, mechanism, and actuation and offers a promising route to on-demand robot fabrication. We demonstrate this with the assembly of two centimeter-scale electromechanical systems: a Discretely Assembled Walking Motor (DAWM) capable of producing large scale linear or rotary motion from five millimeter-scale part types as well as a Modular Tiny Locomoting Element (MOTILE) that can locomote on a variety of ferrous surfaces. The five part types each embody a limited capability including rigid (strut and node), flexural, magnetic, or coil. Through their arrangement in a three-dimensional lattice, we demonstrate the assembly of actuated mechanical degrees-of-freedom in useful small-scale machines. This work extends prior research in discrete material systems with the inclusion of flexural and actuation components. Actuation is accomplished with the use of voice coil actuator components that produce up to 42 mN of force and strokes of 2 mm. This performance compares well with other millimeter scale actuators and provides sufficient force to lift 28 connected nodes in our assembled lattice, or 7 other actuator components. DAWM is capable of stepping at rates of up to 35 Hz, resulting in velocities of up to 25 mm/s. Multiple DAWM systems can be stacked to add force and can be driven in-phase or out-of-phase to produce intermittent or continuous force, respectively. MOTILE can climb vertical surfaces at speeds of 2.46 body-lengths per second, representing the fastest vertical climbing robot in recently reported research. This approach to robot fabrication discretizes robotic systems at a much finer granularity than prior work in modular robotics and demonstrates the possibility of assembling useful small-scale machines from a limited set of standard part types.

show abstract

“…To account for the spiraling action of the flexures and prevent interference with adjacent microspines, a minimum space between wheel units is needed, as modeled by EQ. (13).…”

Section: Sweep Anglementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other wheeled robots have used a similar two wheel plus tail design for mobility with gecko-like adhesive wheels or pressure sensitive adhesive wheels [13]. Other vertical climbing designs use tracks of adhesive materials in place of wheels to increase the area in contact with the wall [14,15] or an inchworm style gait [16,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotary Microspine Rough Surface Mobility

Carpenter

Wiltsie

Parness

2016

IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatron.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

JPL is developing a class of lightweight, highly mobile, crash-proof robots for reconnaissance and security applications.Arrays of independently compliant rotary microspines are used to build wheels that enable the robots to climb stairs, mount curbs, and climb rough vertical walls. This work presents many improvements to the rotary microspine wheels and several new configurations of the robotic platforms, including miniaturized robots weighing less than 10 grams. New microspine flexure materials are presented including viscoelastic flexures that dampen the impact of individual hook elements, and mass-manufacturable microspines made using a single cast process over steel wire in place of elastic flexures. Rapid iteration of microspine designs was done using shape deposition manufacturing and a single-wheeled test robot. This process allowed new wheel concepts to go from design to testing in just three days. In addition new configurations of robots with a powered wheel in the tail have improved reliability and demonstrated new capabilities like climbing heavily painted curbs, climbing stairs with overhanging face angles, and vertical climbing of concrete block buildings as tall as six stories. These results are presented below and in the accompanying video.

show abstract

Walking inverted on ceilings with wheel-legs and micro-structured adhesives

Cited by 28 publications

References 36 publications

Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot

Limpet II: A Modular, Untethered Soft Robot

Discretely assembled walking machines

Rotary Microspine Rough Surface Mobility

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About