Li Shuai, Tian Hongmiao, Zhu Xijing, Liu Mingxin, Li Xiangmeng, Shao Jinyou
Shanxi Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030051, China.
Micro- and Nano-technology Research Center, State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049, China.
Research (Wash D C). 2025 Apr 23;8:0687. doi: 10.34133/research.0687. eCollection 2025.
Gecko-inspired dry adhesives have shown great potential in the field of robotics. However, there is still a large gap between current artificial adhesive-based grippers and natural geckos, especially in terms of precise and fast control of adhesion, which is an important capability for robotic gripper systems, since the targets to be gripped may vary in size and weight (including thin, fragile, soft, and deformable), and manipulation must be fast to meet high productivity requirements. Here, we propose a robotic gripper that is able to switch adhesion rapidly (in less than 0.5 s) to grasp and release objects of various sizes and weights (such as glass substrates, fragile silicon wafers, and deformable polyethylene terephthalate films) by mimicking the self-peeling behavior of gecko toe pads. The gripper retains the fast and stable manipulation of the conventional mechanical gripper, which is more reliable and has a higher load capacity than stimulus-responsive switchable adhesives. Systematic experimental and theoretical studies provide insights into the construction and analysis of the self-peeling model and mechanism to identify certain crucial parameters affecting the self-peeling behavior. Furthermore, a strategy for active adhesion control (i.e., precise adhesion modulation) is integrated by introducing a preset peeling angle , providing the gripper with a quantitative criterion for adjusting the adhesion strength (0 to 82.77 kPa) according to the requirements of practical applications. The gripper has great potential to be an alternative end-operating gripper for robotic systems, opening an avenue for the development of robotic manipulation.
受壁虎启发的干式粘合剂在机器人技术领域已展现出巨大潜力。然而，当前基于人工粘合剂的抓取器与天然壁虎之间仍存在很大差距，尤其是在对粘附力的精确快速控制方面，而这对于机器人抓取器系统来说是一项重要能力，因为待抓取的目标物体在尺寸和重量上可能各不相同（包括薄的、易碎的、柔软的和可变形的），并且操作必须快速以满足高生产率要求。在此，我们提出一种机器人抓取器，它能够通过模仿壁虎脚趾垫的自剥离行为，在不到0.5秒的时间内快速切换粘附力，以抓取和释放各种尺寸和重量的物体（如玻璃基板、易碎的硅片和可变形的聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯薄膜）。该抓取器保留了传统机械抓取器的快速稳定操作，比刺激响应型可切换粘合剂更可靠且承载能力更高。系统的实验和理论研究为自剥离模型和机制的构建与分析提供了见解，以确定影响自剥离行为的某些关键参数。此外，通过引入预设剥离角度 ，集成了一种主动粘附控制策略（即精确粘附调制），为抓取器提供了根据实际应用需求调整粘附强度（0至82.77千帕）的定量标准。该抓取器极有可能成为机器人系统的一种替代末端操作抓取器，为机器人操作的发展开辟了一条道路。
