Parthenocissus-inspired soft climbing robots

Abstract

Climbing robots have attracted growing attention due to their mobility on vertical and nonplanar structural surfaces. However, the development of climbing robots capable of climbing on various complex surfaces remains elusive, especially on discontinuous surfaces. In nature, Parthenocissus climbs as it grows, having growing-climbing behaviors. Inspired by Parthenocissus, we propose a growing-climbing mechanism and report a soft climbing robot, which grows microstructured biofilms to enhance adhesion, similar to Parthenocissus growing suckers and adsorbing to the wall. The robot uses shape memory alloy contraction to achieve bending, similar to Parthenocissus using gelatinous fibers contraction to achieve hinge-like bending. In addition, to not damage the site, it can be fully contracted after completing tasks. The climbing robot can climb on various complex surfaces, especially discontinuous surfaces, verifying the effectiveness of Parthenocissus’ growing-climbing mechanism. The growing-climbing mechanism is a universal climbing robot paradigm, opening a door for complex surface climbing robots.