Synthetic Dry Adhesives for Human Scaled Climbing of Vertical Surfaces

Dry, reusable, washable adhesives based upon Geckos' ability to take advantage of van der Waals forces, and previously studied at UMass Amherst, were designed and fabricated for research. The studies performed on the adhesives showed feasibility for vertical climbing at the human scales, with load capacities of one single high-quality adhesive pad ranging between 60 lbf and 100 lbf. A climbing apparatus in the form of a hand-operated paddle consisting of three pads was designed and built using three adhesive pads, and the apparatus' capacity for climbing was evaluated.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169577/1/willvdb_Synthetic_Dry_Adhesives.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169577/2/willvdb_Synthetic_Dry_Adhesive_Design_Expo.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169577/3/Adhesive_Data.zi