Researchers combined gecko-inspired adhesives and a custom robotic gripper to create a device for grabbing space debris. They tested their gripper in multiple zero gravity settings, including the International Space Station.
Credits:
Stanford University/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
A robotic device using gecko-inspired adhesives can grasp and manipulate large objects in microgravity
Hao Jiang, Elliot. W. Hawkes, Christine Fuller, Matthew A. Estrada, Srinivasan A. Suresh, Neil Abcouwer, Amy K. Han, Shiquan Wang, Christopher J. Ploch, Aaron Parness and Mark R. Cutkosky
Science Robotics DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aan4545