Electrosticky droid boffin in spider-gecko tech bitchslap A California-based researcher says he has developed "electro-adhesion" tech which will allow robots to crawl up walls and perhaps hang from ceilings with ease. Nonprofit R&D group SRI reckons its switchable stickiness kit would be handy for military and disaster-relief applications - and ultimately, for special forces operators …
How long before enterprising boffins fit say spybot with a video camera that jocks can use to electrotape themselves to the windows of attractive young women for a spot of voyeurism, or is this the kind of toy that little Johnny could be seeing under the Christmas tree in the next 5-10 years?
Paris icon for obvious reasons.
Very cool, indeed. I wonder whether this clamp force is direction independent or not (would it be possible to hang from ceilings too?)
In any case, it seems it would still need to get at least twice the performance in order to work reliably for prospective Techno-spidermen. At the half a Newton per square centimetre (because, yeah, I think we would like to err on the safe side when climbing skyscrapers ;)) , in order to support a regular male adult of 80 kg, one would need some 1600 square centimeters of the thing, amounting to a square of 40 cm on each size. I suppose that while still possible, it's probably not too wieldy to hold such a shield-sized thing on each hand.
Nonprofit R&D Scientist developed some nifty technology that will rescue earthquake victim.... Throw in your run of the mill villain, maybe a love interest (Kirsten Dunst w/ digitally enchanted teeth)... Next thing you know you are doing a $200M weekend at the box office....
Mr. Spielberg, a moment of your time please?
KC
Presuming the scaling up of this invention to provide human sized `Spiderman ´type abilities, creates a scary mental picture of thousands of London commuters in red and blue leotards ( a truly horrible mental picture, given some of the figures seen on commuter trains). Attempting to avoid ever larger congestion charges on the roads, swing through the streets of London and colliding in head on smashes metres above the streets. Still, now I know what I want for my next Christmas prezzy1
Remember those super-glue ads, "one drop holds a ton?" They did that by squeezing the drop between two very flat plates, and pulling on them completely evenly, exactly perpendicular to the plates...that way no part of the area is stressed any more than another.
I'd bet that's how they're measuring this force...and I'd also bet that if you pull on their stuff sideways, pulling out one side of the plate unevenly (as you would climbing a wall) that their strength goes down significantly.
I'm pretty sure ordinary stick-tape can hold more than 2 pounds per square inch if you pull perpendicularly instead of "peeling" it. So I'm not too impressed yet
My book shelves stay attached to the walls without using any power at all. Putting them up and knocking them down requires energy.
It is the same with electrosticky. The article gives no clue about the energy required to attach to a surface, or if it is possible to recover that energy when releasing a surface. The 100microwatts is for remaining attached.
[Also two 40cm shields may be a bit big, but four 23.1cm shields (keep three attached at all times) would also work.]
"How much can 100uJ accelerate 1lb of weight by in 1s? Not much. Wouldn't that mean you'd have to be staying /very/ still if you didn't want to fall off?
"
You missed the trick: it doesn't work like that. The muscles (or motors) do the work of lifting, not the pads. Yes the pads react must against a force, but they do no work (expend no energy) if the force is not translated over distance - the purpose of these pads is to ensure no movement (relative to the wall); hence they need no significant power.
I guess that depends on whether you intend dangling by one arm/leg or not. If you were to work to "three points of contact at all times" you could divide that 1600 sqcm into three and make four pads of that size - about 24cm on each side - for hands and feet. That way you can support your weight adequately while shifting one limb to a new position. Or you could make 4x 800sqcm pads (<30cm/side) and you'd be able to support your weight on 2 points of contact while you reposition the other 2.
Okay, 1600sqcm isn't really small enough to allow full on Spiderman antics in tight lycra, but if you racked up the wattage 1000x that's still only a few miliwatts- a couple of hours on a single AA would still be possible, and the area required (especially with the 3-points-of-contact model) becomes far more practical.
Also, another pressing concern: If it can be scaled up, could it be embedded in rubber? Allowing, say, greater traction in car tyres? Even on the ceiling?
If the answer to both of those is "yes", please point me in the direction of your sales department!
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