GeiwBot: A tiny robot that grips like a gecko, glides like an inchworm
A group of Canadian scientists at University of Waterloo built a first of its kind robot that can walk on a smooth surface, climb up on a wall and even walk across an inverted ceiling like a gecko, designed specifically for medical surgeries
The sight of a house lizard or a gecko hanging upside down on the ceiling might seem ordinary to most eyes. But this feat of walking on an inverted surface, upside down, is the farthest from ordinary.
Other than the common household geckos, there are not many reptiles, arthropods, or insects in nature that can demonstrate such a unique ability to traverse inversely on somewhat smooth surfaces. Sure, spiders can climb up a wall. But they are not as good as walking across a vertical surface upside down like a gecko.
A group of Canadian scientists at University of Waterloo took notice of this otherwise uncommon trait and built a first-of-its-kind soft robot that can walk on a smooth surface, climb up on a wall and even walk across an inverted ceiling like a gecko, designed specifically for medical surgeries.
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But geckos are not the only animal that inspired this invention. The locomotion of an inchworm also influenced the development of this holistic soft robot. The constant squeezing, stretching, and arching of an inchworm's body laid out how the robot would move across inverted or horizontal surfaces. From this locomotion of an inchworm and the sticking ability of a gecko came the world's first holistic soft robot, GeiwBot, seemingly derived from the name Gecko Inchworm Robot.
Although a gecko's ability to stick to an inverted surface is impressive, and the inchworm's locomotion allows the soft robot to glide through even smooth surfaces without relying on traction too much, GeiwBot's real claim to fame is its ability to operate without an external power source.
This means, the robot can traverse without a battery attached to it or any power source for that matter, making it lightweight and remotely operable. This makes GeiwBot the perfect robot to use in medical surgeries. And this is what the engineers of the University of Waterloo have aimed for and achieved.
GeiwBot's 4 cm long, 3 mm wide, and 1 mm thick soft body can be remotely operated, allowing it to be used in surgeries where cutting through an organ is medically required. Like an inchworm, it will crawl through and be able to stick to smooth, uneven, even vertical or inverted surfaces inside a human body.
The reason why this robot does not need an attached power source and moves as it does boils down to the traits borrowed from geckos and inchworms.
GeiwBot's middle portion is made of polymer strips that are sensitive to light, specifically UV light. When ultraviolet light is shed on GeiwBot's body, it squeezes and arches like an inchworm. When the light is removed from the polymer strip, it relaxes and expands from the arching or squeezed shape. By constantly stretching and expanding its body, it moves along a surface without needing any power source to traverse.
To imitate a gecko's ability to stick to vertical and inverted surfaces, GeiwBot is equipped with Gecko-Adhesive Pad (GAP), otherwise known as a synthetic adhesive pad. A Magnetic Composite film, a Mushroom Pillar Array, and a Viscoelastic Film make up this triple layered adhesive pad that allows GeiwBot to attach to surfaces like glass, aluminium, polyimide, etc.
GeiwBot has two of these adhesive pads on either end of the light-sensitive polymer strip. A magnetic field is used on the pads to attach the robot with a surface or detach.
Using a magnetic field, the adhesive pad on the tail-end is detached from the surface. UV is introduced to the polymer strip at this point, triggering an arching motion that squeezes the robot's body. This brings the tail-end forward, and removing the UV source, the tail is lowered to the surface. The adhesive pad on the tails re-attaches itself to the surface using a magnetic field.
In a similar fashion, the head-end is then detached using a magnetic field, and UV light triggers an expansion of the body, followed by the reattachment of that end. This is how, without a wired connection to a power source, this gecko-inchworm-mimicking soft robot can stick to slimy, smooth, and even inverted surfaces of the human organ within the body, enabling surgeons to use it as a tool.
This attempt of the Canadian team of Jian Sun, Lukas Bauman, Li Yu, and Boxin Zhao not only introduced a new kind of holistic soft robot in robotics but also added a new dimension to biomimicry.
