A team of robot engineers have designed gecko inspired robots, which can carry 2000 times their own weight, in spite of being so tiny in size. These tiny robots can be used in our day today lives to perform various tasks. They are going to be of enormous use in the medical field as well.
The Stanford engineers used several techniques which were inspired by inch worms and geckos, according to The Verge. The scientists said that we can imagine these robots pulling as much weight which can be seen as equivalent to human beings dragging a blue whale!
The design techniques which they used were not very complicated. The scientists simply mimicked the natural skills of a gecko and attached tiny rubber spikes on the feet of the robot, which helped the machine to bend itself when some pressure is applied on it. The spikes greatly increase the surface area of the robot, thus increasing its flexibility.
As soon as the pressure is withdrawn, the spikes get straightened out, which allows the tiny gecko robots to drag its the weight forward. In this way, a mechanism was designed for the tiny robots to drag heavy weights easily, according to Blastr.
These tiny robots also come in a variety of their own. The biggest model weighs just 12 grams and can pull up objects which are to 2000 times its own weight. The smallest model weighs 20 milligram and can pull up objects which are 25 times its own weight.
In addition to this, there is another nine grams model which is entirely inspired by inch worms and drag objects up to 25 times its own weight on a vertical surface. This can be imagined equivalent to a human being dragging an elephant.