Controllable dry adhesives have sparked a lot of interest, but due to their high cost, complexity, and machine precision requirements, their development and application are still limited. This research creates a scalable roll-to-roll process for fabrication of wedge-shaped controllable dry adhesives for robotic grasping. The configuration with the best wedge dimension (50 μm width and 30° tip angle) has peak and stable normal adhesion values of 14 kPa and 6.8 kPa, respectively. Furthermore, parallel grippers are made to grasp things with flat surfaces, a range of shapes, and different surface textures. This novel scalable, low-cost, and simple method can be used to make a straight and continuous wedge-structured dry adhesive which could be used in robotic manipulation tasks on a large s...[ Read more ]

Controllable dry adhesives have sparked a lot of interest, but due to their high cost, complexity, and machine precision requirements, their development and application are still limited. This research creates a scalable roll-to-roll process for fabrication of wedge-shaped controllable dry adhesives for robotic grasping. The configuration with the best wedge dimension (50 μm width and 30° tip angle) has peak and stable normal adhesion values of 14 kPa and 6.8 kPa, respectively. Furthermore, parallel grippers are made to grasp things with flat surfaces, a range of shapes, and different surface textures. This novel scalable, low-cost, and simple method can be used to make a straight and continuous wedge-structured dry adhesive which could be used in robotic manipulation tasks on a large scale. Furthermore, with gecko-inspired adhesives, where close contact is critical for a firm attachment, monitoring the status of contact is vital. Few have achieved tactile sense for gecko grippers due to a lack of deformable sensors. Viko is an adaptive gecko gripper that monitors contact condition using vision-based tactile sensors. The sensor provides high-resolution real-time contact area and shear force readings. The sensor is also adaptable, low-cost, and small. It can incorporate gecko-inspired adhesives into the sensor surface without compromising its adaptability or performance. The gripper's performance was evaluated using a robotic arm and a variety of grasping tests. Even with a small fingertip pitch angle of 30°, the gripper has a maximum payload of 8N.

Demonstration is presented on how the gripper may use the sensor feedback to change fingertip position for better contact. In addition, common object picking was carried out to demonstrate the gripper's adaptability.