Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers unveil LORIS, an innovative rock-climbing robot with microspine grippers. The latter consists of a host of miniature hooks that grab onto small nooks and crannies in the surface being climbed.
The robot’s four legs each have a microspine gripper, which incorporate two groups of spines arranged at a right angle to one another. The gripper is joined to the leg by a passive wrist joint, while an onboard depth-sensing camera and microprocessor allows it to strategically advances its legs on surfaces.
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Forces are distributed among the robot’s grippers using an optimization-based control strategy to minimize the risk of unexpected detachment. The robot prototype has demonstrated vertical climbing on both flat cinder block walls and uneven rock surfaces in full Earth gravity,” said the researchers.
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