Bioinspired cross-medium wall-climbing robot with high-performance adhesion and contact adaptability

Abstract

Wall-climbing robots (WCRs) using numerous attachment/grasping mechanisms replace humans in executing repetitive or challenging tasks in space-confined, high-risk, or radioactive environments, garnering substantial research interest. Nevertheless, their application remains limited to environment-and surface-specific scenarios. To this end, we present a contact-adaptable, peeling-resistant, and cross-medium WCR integrated with gecko-and octopus-inspired self-adaptive rigid-soft hybrid tracks. The hollow mushroom-shaped adhesive microstructures (HMSAMSs) on the robot tracks simultaneously couple the adhesive structural morphologies of gecko and octopus as well as inherit their functions. These microstructures demonstrate superior normal and tangential adhesion forces and adhesion-to- preload ratios in dry and underwater environments, endowing the WCR with stable cross-medium performance. Furthermore, we construct discrete HMSAMS patches and rigid-soft components in robot track, respectively mimicking biological adhesion’s mechanical decoupling and bone-muscle functions, which effectively prevent interface crack propagation, improve peeling threshold, and enhance contact adaptability. The WCR with aforementioned advantages substantially adapts to diverse material surfaces in complex multimedia environments, accelerating its universal application.