Tag Archives: climbing

Robot Scales Walls with Sticky Plastic Feet

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A team of researchers in Switzerland have been working on a new robot that’s able to climb vertical surfaces of all sorts using unique sticky feet. The robot can climb all sorts of surfaces including walls, rock, aluminum, and others. The developers behind the robot believe it could be used to help with mountain rescues, construction crews, or painting walls and ceilings.

wall climbing robot

The wall climbing ‘bot was developed by Liyu Wang, Lina Graber and Fumiya Iida at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich.

wall climbing robot 2

The robot is able to cling to vertical surfaces using special plastic footpads that heat rapidly causing them to melt. When the plastic melts, the compound slimes into the nooks and crannies on the surface it’s climbing allowing it to stick. The robot then uses thermoelectric effect to cool the plastic allowing the foot to release so a step can be taken. The adhesives in the plastic feet melt at about 70°C.

While sticky feet made of melting plastic may not sound particularly strong, the researchers claim that the robot can carry five times its own mass up a vertical wall.

[via New Scientist]

Climbing robot melts and cools plastic to get its footing

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DNP Climbing robot melts and cools plastic to get its footing

We've seen plenty of robots scale walls over the years, from models that emit supersonic streams of air to gecko-inspired creations, but few can carry more than their own weight, much less handle rough terrain. Enter this unique Swiss-made machine, which handles both tasks with aplomb thanks to the rapid melting and cooling of its thermoplastic adhesive feet. Created by the whiz kids over at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the plastic compounds in the contraption's tootsies melt at around 70 degrees Celsius (158 Fahrenheit), where they're tacky enough to stick and fill surface gaps. If the bot needs to take a step forward, a thermoelectric effect kicks in to cool the plastics down, detaching the foot in the process. Repeat the motion several times and you get a tiny climbing critter that's able to carry about six to seven times its own weight over complex surfaces, a feat that's sure to be of actual use someday. It's certainly more practical, though a lot less fun, than one that mixes cocktails. Go on after the break to see the little climber in action.

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Source: IEEE Explore, New Scientist

Robots Compete by Throwing Frisbees and Climbing Pyramids

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I’m sure that this is just a small taste of what we can expect from future robot competitions, just with less killing of humans. This competition is designed to attract more young students to the field of robotics and for today at least, it looks pretty fun. Let’s all enjoy it while we’re still alive.

robosports
The annual First Robotics Competition is being held at San Diego’s Valley View Casino Center aka Sports Arena. The seventh annual competition will have 60 teams. They will compete using 100+ pound robots in a game where they score points by throwing frisbees into a slot in the wall and then climb metal pyramids.

The match starts with a 15-second period where robots operate independently. Each frisbee scored is worth additional points. For the remainder of the two-minute match, drivers control the robots remotely and try to score as many points as possible. Then they try to climb a pyramid. The higher up they get, the more points they get.

The championship will be held in St. Louis on April 24 to 27 and there are $16 million(USD) in scholarships for competitors to win.

[via kpbs]

Thought-Controlled Bionic Leg Helps Man Climb 103 Floors of Willis (Sears) Tower

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Advancements in biotechnology continue to amaze me. We’re rapidly approaching the point where human/cyborg combinations are becoming more and more plausible, as is evidenced by this recent accomplishment by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. This past sunday, a man wearing the first “thought-controlled bionic leg” used the limb to help him ascend 103 floors of the skyscraper formerly known as the Sears Tower.

thought controlled bionic leg 1

This past Sunday, 31-year-old Zac Vawter made history by climbing countless stairs inside the iconic Chicago skyscraper, all with the help of this incredible bionic leg. This mechanical and technological marvel is controlled by Vawter’s own neurons, and was developed by the Rehabilitation Institute’s Center for Bionic Medicine, and partially-funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. You can see Zac and his amazing bionic leg in action in the video clip below:

The leg actually interacts with Zac’s nerve impulses, allowing him to climb stairs much more easily than he could with an ordinary prosthetic leg. Vawter lost his leg after a motorcycle accident back in 2009, and his trial of the leg will help him and potentially many others with disabilities to walk again.


When Tired Of Running On A Treadmill, There’s Always The TreadWall

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Jogging is so 2008: all the cool kids these days are climbing. Unfortunately, not all the cool kids have the kind of space that can fit a climbing wall, leaving them to scale desks, stairwells and backyard sheds. While often making for YouTube gold, the more serious athletes might want to look into the Treadwall. It’s just like a treadmill, only more vertical and with more climbing points. You set the speed and determine the course, making things as hard or easy as you think you can handle. There’s no noisy motor, speed being determined entirely by friction. The TreadWall M4 is only 4 ft. wide and shouldn’t take up much space in your home.

And if you’re the kind of hardcore climber that trains for, you know, real life, then there’s the TreadWall Kore with an overhang that can reach 35 degrees, and up to 280 different hold positions. That particular one is almost $5,000, so we expect the other models to be somewhat less, but still in the comfortable 4 digits.

No, these aren’t exactly new products, but that’s never stopped us from posting about stuff before.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Uncrate ]


Personnel Vacuum Assisted Climber: Your Noisy Neighborhood Vacuum-Man

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A team of Utah State University engineering students have built a wearable device that allows its user to climb walls. Their solution borrows less from Spider-Man and more from Inspector Gadget. Instead of subjecting themselves to radioactive spider bites, the Ascending Aggies built large suction pads.

Personnel Vacuum Assisted Climber

The students, who call themselves the Ascending Aggies, won first place at the Air Force Research Laboratory Design Challenge for their invention. The challenge was to build a lightweight device that could help special forces officers to scale walls or mountain faces without using a grappling hook. The Ascending Aggies responded with the Personal Vacuum Assisted Climber or PVAC: two powerful suction pads with soft ends that can conform to the surface of the wall.

The pads are adhered by battery-powered vacuums in modified ice cream buckets and each pull 4.5psi. They didn’t make additional pads for the feet, although if you look at the video below you’ll see some sort of hook-shaped ninja toe attachments on the tester’s feet.

Spider-Man annoys his villains with his witty retorts. I guess American soldiers will piss the hell out of their enemies with the PVAC’s obnoxious whine. Check out the link below for more information.

[via Deseret News & Neatorama]

 


Clothbot Robot Climbs Pants with Ease

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We’ve seen some unusual robots around here over the years, but this is definitely one of my favorites in recent memory. This little guy is designed to be able to easily climb cloth surfaces.

clothbot

The Clothbot was designed by a team from the Chinese Academy of Science, and it uses a special set of gripper wheels to help it ascend textiles. The tiny robot weighs just under 5 ounces, but is incredibly adept at handling the challenging surface of fabric. In the demo video below, we see Clothbot climbing a shirt, and then pair of pants:

Why, you may ask, would you need a robot that can climb your pants? Its creators think that the Clothbot could be the foundation for small robotic pets that could climb on us, or the slightly more ridiculous idea of a robotic cellphone which could saddle itself on your shoulder to free your hands – guess they never heard of a Bluetooth headset. They also suggest the idea of robotic “body inspection.” Um, no thanks. On the other hand, tiny robot pets that climb on us sound kind of fun – at least until Skynet gets a hold of them.

[via IEEE Spectrum]


DARPA Robot Climbs Stairs Like a Boss, Another Does More Pushups Than I Can

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Hot on the heels of the announcement of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, it’s looking more and more like Boston Dynamics will be a shoe-in for the competition with its latest bi-pedal robots. A recently released video clip shows DARPA and Boston Dynamics bipedal robots climbing stairs, walking on a treadmill and doing pushups.

darpa robots

DARPA plans on releasing a modified version of these robots as a platform for those participating in the Robotics Challenge but are using the government-funded equipment option. It’s expected that the final version of the platform robot will be a complete humanoid, with two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. But even without all of those body parts, the robots shown in this clip are damned impressive.

Those slow-mo sound effects of the climbing ‘bot are going to give me nightmares. Still, it’s pretty amazing to see that we’re on the verge of full-size humanoid robots that can walk, climb and even perform exercises just like us. I also like that these robots are wearing shoes. Now, drop and give me 20, PETMAN!