A functional adhesive robot skin with integrated micro rubber suction cups

The goal of this research is to develop a functional adhesive robot skin with micro suction cups, which realizes two new functions: adaptive adhesion to rough/curved surfaces and anisotropic adhesion. Both functions are realized by integration of asymmetric micro cups. This skin can be applied to various robot mechanisms such as robot hands, wall-climbing robot feet and so on as a kind of robot skins. This paper especially reports the concept of this adhesive robot skin and its fundamental characteristics. The experiments show the developed skin realizes novel characteristics, high adhesion even on rough surface and anisotropic adhesion.