Biomimicking “soft robots” hang upside down, gecko-style

If you’re anything like me, you can’t. Stand. Bugs. Maybe not all bugs. A delicate spider is a fellow fiber artist (and it eats other bugs). A beetle with its elegant elytra is a complement to any garden (and it eats other bugs). But perhaps there’s that one kind of bug that makes you feel like your skin is covered in …bugs.

It seems I have to get over it, because the inchworms of my nightmares might save my life one day. Scientists from the University of Waterloo took inspiration from both catterpillaroid larvae and the significantly less nightmare-nurturing geckos to design the GeiwBot, a robot capable of clinging to and climbing any surface, even upside-down. Their purpose? Not making sure I never sleep again, but rescue operations and heart surgery.

“This work is the first time a holistic soft robot has climbed on inverted surfaces, advancing state-of-the-art soft robotics innovation,” chemical engineer Dr. Boxin Zhao said in a press release.

The key innovation in these machines is that they can use ultraviolet light and local magnetic fields to generate their own power, which means they can be sent to search hard-to-reach places or even inside the human body to assist in heart surgeries without the need for bulky batteries or external cables.

The robots are made of liquid crystal elastomers and synthetic adhesive pads and measure about 4 × 3 × 1 millimeters in size.

Read the full study in Cell Reports Physical Science.

Sun J, Bauman L, Yu L, Zhao B. Gecko-and-inchworm-inspired untethered soft robot for climbing on walls and ceilings. February 15, 2023. Cell Reports Physical Science. 4(2): 101241. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.101241.