Load Sharing Design of a Multi-legged Adaptable Gripper With Gecko-Inspired Controllable Adhesion

Gecko-inspired controllable dry adhesion has promising applications in various fields such as transfer printing, advanced robotics, and space technology. In this study, we proposed a multi-legged self-adaptive gripper based on gecko-inspired controllable adhesion to manipulate both flat and curved objects. It consists of four symmetric adhesive units, each modulated by two adaptive-locking mechanisms for compression and rotation, respectively, and one peeling mechanism. The two adaptive-locking mechanisms adapt to surfaces with height and curvature differences to ensure intimate contact and then lock the adaption configuration to enable equal load sharing for strong attachment. The peeling mechanism rapidly peels the adhesive surfaces from the substrate for easy detachment. Therefore, this gripper can achieve controllable load sharing to reliably grasp and easily release smooth objects with various surface shapes. Furthermore, the effects of object posture and structural parameters on its grasping performance were analyzed, which can guide its optimal design by improving equal load sharing among adhesive units. This work provides an equal load-sharing strategy for multi-unit adhesive system design and demonstrates its potential for emerging industrial applications.