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We have a lot of junk orbiting
Earth and it's dangerous.
And so people have been
looking at different ways
to latch onto items in space
and possibly retrieve them,
maybe even reuse some of them.
So what we've developed
is a gripper that
uses gecko-inspired adhesives.
It's a microstructured adhesive.
It's much simpler than
what the gecko has,
but it works the same way.
Most of the time
it's not sticky.
It has tiny, little
microscopic flaps.
And it only sticks when
you apply a load to it
in the direction
along the surface.
So as you apply a load,
each of these flaps
lays down like this, and
you get very close contact.
And it's this close contact
that turns on the adhesive.
When you release
that pulling force,
it comes back up
with elastic energy
and comes off with
almost no force.
We aimed at grasping
a variety of objects
from these solar panels
that have big flat surfaces.
Some of these rocket bodies
that have really curved
like cylindrical surfaces.
That's why we have two modules.
The type of adhesive we
use is space qualified.
It still remains sticky
even in the very challenging
environment of space.
Traditional methods of
grasping like suction cups
don't work because
there's no atmosphere.
And anything
sticky-- and they're
called pressure sensitive
adhesives-- in the cold,
it basically becomes brittle
and no longer sticks.
We've tested it on free floating
platforms both at Stanford
and at Jet Propulsion Labs
where our collaborators are.
With their help, we've tested
it on the zero gravity parabolic
flight airplane.
And then finally,
Aaron Parnassus Group
at Jet Propulsion Labs made
a version of the grippers
that we have that went up to
the International Space Station.
We also imagine that it could
be used for small robots that
climb around structures in
space in order to do maintenance
or inspections.
What we design is a proof
of concept prototype
and then what needs
to eventually happen
is make a sturdy gripper that
will go on the end of a robot
arm in space.
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For more, please visit
us at stanford.edu.
