Biomimetics & Dexterous Manipulation Lab, Stanford University (USA) Stickybot / Stickybot III (1)

Biomimetics & Dexterous Manipulation Lab, Stanford University (USA) Stickybot / Stickybot III (2)

Not soldUniversity research robot.

Not for sale (research)Not programmableGecko adhesiveClimbs glassStanfordTime Best Invention 2006

Not soldShipping: Not sold. A university research robot, not for sale. Stanford licenses the adhesive technology.

Remote control: Not possible. Lab-only robot.

Stickybot (Stanford BDML) ↗Stickybot III ↗Stanford TechFinder ↗

Overview

A gecko-inspired robot that climbs smooth glass, tile and later wood paneling and painted metal using synthetic directional dry adhesive that grips when pulled one way and releases cleanly the other way. It came out of the RiSE project, was named one of Time's Best Inventions of 2006, and the team's IEEE Transactions on Robotics paper on it won the 2009 King-Sun Fu best paper award. The original was retired in July 2010 and replaced by Stickybot III. The adhesive work also fed Stanford's Z-Man project on gecko-inspired human climbing.

Specifications

Category	Crawlers, snakes & climbers · Climbers & inspection crawlers
Released	2006
Availability	Not for sale (research)
Programmability	No programmability
Best for	Professionals & labs
Vision sensors	No vision sensors
Actuators	Unknown
Audio	No audio
Compute type	Arduino / ESP32 / microcontroller
Remote control	Not programmable
Size	Stickybot III: 36 cm body plus 40 cm tail
Locomotion	Four legs with directional dry-adhesive toe pads, Stickybot III has 4 DoF per leg including wrist actuation
Compute	Stickybot III: local microprocessor servo controller per motor on a high-speed communication bus
Camera	None
Sensors	Not published
Runtime	Not published
Speed	~5 cm/s (Stickybot III)
SDK	None public (lab gait uploader)