Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #05072



To: legged-robots@egroups.com legged-robots@egroups.com
From: Curt Mills, WE7U hacker@tc.fluke.com
Date: Wednesday, July 07, 1999 10:26 AM
Subject: [legbots] Re: ability to walk on the wall ?



>On Tue, 6 Jul 1999, Mike Jones wrote:
>
>> I suspect that scalability will become an issue here, unless the vertical
walking
>> will only occur on ferrous surfaces (where electromagnects may work) or
smooth
>> ones (where suction cups might work). The small size of the fly reduces
the
>> weight exponentially and makes it much easier to grab onto even very
small footholds
>> and still support the weight. Even if I could grab onto the wallpaper in
my
>> house, I don't think that I'd want a 4 or 5 pound robot pulling on it!
>
>The questions on this list sure get me thinking...
>
>Things are getting smaller every year, so think in terms of what might be
>possible in the near future. Perhaps a robot weighing only a few ounces
>could be made to walk on walls, or perhaps a large enough surface area
could
>be contacted for a larger weight. Another possibility might be several
>lightweight robot pieces that hook together via wires and coordinate their
>activity so as to move together. Then could distribute the brains, power
>and locomotion amongst the pieces. Kind of a moving spiderweb I guess.
>
>This starts making me think about Tilden's small robots, and I'm wondering
if
>one of these very light designs could be adapted with suction cups or some
kind
>of perpetually sticky substance.
>
>The next thought I had was if it's possible to walk on walls then the
ceiling
>would be next, and it would be more of a hazard to my wife, kids and myself
>up there. I'd hate to be killed or injured by one of my own designs.
>
>Curt Mills, WE7U hacker.NO_*SPAM@tc.fluke.com
>Senior Methods Engineer/SysAdmin
>"Lotto: A tax on people who are bad at math." -- unknown
>"Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates." -- WE7U
>
>
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>
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>
>
>
>


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