A photo from open sources
Researchers from the European Space Agency and Simon Fraser University in Canada selected materials that like the “dry glue” of geckos, they stick to everything Earth temperature range up to space vacuum and cold.
Engineers of the Faculty of Technical Sciences of the University demonstrated such bonding on the example of a family of crawling robots “Abigaille”.
Gecko’s paws are sticky due to the large number of small 100-200 nanometer thick hairs is the size of individual bacteria. They are so small that between the ends of the hair and the surface the forces of atomic interaction begin to manifest.
“The reason for our interest in dry adhesives was circumstance that other methods are not suitable for space Wednesday. Materials like scotch tape can become dirty and lose their stickiness, in addition, in a vacuum they emit fumes of chemicals, which can damage the exact instruments of the ship.
Velcro requires a mating surface, and their broken hooks can disable the robot; magnets cannot stick to composite surfaces, and their magnetic field can knock down hardware setup.
“We borrowed technology from the microelectronic industry, to make our paws terminators, “said Michael Henry of Simon Fraser University. “But because of the technological constraints managed to create hairs only 100 times larger than gecko hairs – however, this is enough to withstand weight of the robot.
Our Abigaille robot has six limbs with four degrees of freedom, so he’s smart enough. Such paws allow him to easily move from horizontal movement to vertical, which can be useful when avoiding obstacles or on satellite inspection. ”
While the robot moves on artificial – relatively smooth – surfaces, but scientists are working to improve it, to make useful for use in space.
A photo from open sources
Robots
