Snail-inspired water-enhanced soft sliding suction for climbing robots.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38740752.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-48293-2 and PMC identifier 11091155.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Snails can stably slide across a surface with only a single high-payload sucker, offering an efficient adhesive locomotion mechanism for next-generation climbing robots. The critical factor for snails' sliding suction behaviour is mucus secretion, which reduces friction and enhances suction. Inspired by this, we proposed an artificial sliding suction mechanism. The sliding suction utilizes water as an artificial mucus, which is widely available and evaporates with no residue. The sliding suction allows a lightweight robot (96 g) to slide vertically and upside down, achieving high speeds (rotation of 53°/s and translation of 19 mm/s) and high payload (1 kg as tested and 5.03 kg in theory), and does not require energy during adhesion. Here, we show that the sliding suction is a low-cost, energy-efficient, high-payload and clean adhesive locomotion strategy, which has high potential for use in climbing robots, outdoor inspection robots and robotic transportation.