A robot capable of mimicking the surface adhesion of geckos — which can climb across virtually any surface without leaving behind a sticky substance — has been developed by a team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.

The Gecko Adhesion Based Sea Star (GASS) Crawler robot features adhesive material comprised of diffraction grating films on its feet that can enable the robot to both swim and climb, according to its developers.

Source: Carnegie Mellon University

In the lab, the Carnegie Mellon team tested the robot and its adhesive feet on glass, acrylic and stainless-steel surfaces. The team reported that the adhesive feet improved locomotion under both wet and dry conditions and they could climb on 25° slopes and hold on to 51° slopes.

Future applications for this material, according to the researchers, could potentially involve collecting and detecting pathogens on surfaces, thereby decreasing hospital infections, for instance.

"The use of micro patterned structures allows this material to adhere to different surfaces, and has shown good results on skin," the researchers added. "Adhesion is enhanced using a contact splitting effect that is like what is observed in natural gecko adhesives…The key materials innovation here is the ability to pattern these microscale structures over large areas using diffraction grating arrays that you can order on Amazon. The diverse applications extend from robotics to electronics and even energy devices."

The paper, Gecko adhesion based sea star crawler robot, is published in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

For more on the GASS Crawler robot, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University.