Compliant Distributed Magnetic Adhesion Device for Wall Climbing

Abstract

We introduce a distributed compliant device inspired in gecko foot. It consists of a holder and small independent adhesion units on a flexible support. Unlike gecko, that uses Van der Waals force to achieve adhesion, the proposed design can be based on other adhesion phenomena, (for example magnetic or electrostatic force). We evaluate an implementation based on magnets. Key features are: limited surface roughness compliance, efficiency and cost-performance.