科技动态:机器人应用"壁虎爬墙技术"（在线收听）

Now, from the Boston Museum of Science, Si-tech Today, on NECN.

有线新闻波士顿消息。

You've heard art imitating life, but how about technology imitating biology? Joining us now from the Museum of Science Boston is Casey Kute from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.Hi, Casey.Hi, how are you?

你听说过艺术源于生活，但你听说过科学源于生物学吗？匹兹堡（美国城市）卡耐基梅隆大学的Casey Kute将向我们详细介绍。你好Casey。你好，主持人。

Good, good to have you with us. So, you're looking to biology to design robots, and what specifically have you come up with?

好的，很高兴和你一道。你们现在正在利用生物学设计机器人，具体说说进展如何？

So, if you look at nature, you'll see really unique abilities. One of them is the gecko, which is a small lizard that's able to climb on smooth surfaces. So, we want to go and figure out how it is doing that. And take that the same ability, and those principles, and use them on some of the robots that we have and one of them is Folbar, which I have here. And it actually uses a flat tacky elastomer which is our first step before beginning the synthetic gecko fibers.

如果仔细观察自然界，你就会发现许多独特的生物，比如壁虎，一种能够在光滑的墙面上爬行的小型蜥蜴。我们想要弄清楚它是如何做到这一点的，将壁虎爬行的原理应用到机器人上，机器人之一Folbar，就是我手里拿着的机器，它应用了一个胶质的弹性纤维，这只是我们合成壁虎爬墙功能的第一步。

And how does the gecko do what he does?

那么壁虎是如何做到这点的呢？

So, the gecko has tiny hairs on the feet, and each one of those hairs can get really close contact with the wall. And the forces between the molecules, and both the fibers and the wall come together under what are called intermolecular forces, more specifically the Van der Waals Forces. And so if you get thousands of those tiny hairs really close to each other, you can actually get a significant amount of force.

壁虎的脚上有很多细小毛发，每根毛发都能很好地和墙面贴合。毛发纤维和墙面间相互的力作用称为分子间的作用力，更具体地说叫做范德华力。因此，如果你有成千上万的这种细小毛发，并且分布密集，那么你就拥有了可观的吸力。

And what do you use to make the robot mimic how the gecko moves?

那你们如何让机器人像壁虎一样移动呢？

So we use a polymer material and molded some of these fibers, put them on one of our robots called Wallbot and it actually can climb on really smooth surfaces. One of the problems that you have is that the adhesion between the fibers and the wall is really strong which is great for climbing. But when you want it to move, you've got to figure out the way to move it. So, we actually peel from the surface, and in the same way that the gecko peels its tones off.

我们用高分子聚合物仿制出这种毛发纤维，并安装在了名叫Wallbot的机器人身上。Wallbot可以在光滑的平面上爬行得很高。有一个问题，这种纤维与墙面间的吸力很大，这一点有助于在墙面上爬行，但如果要爬行的话，我们还要想办法让纤维有效的离开墙面，像壁虎一样剥落纤维。

And so we are looking at some videos here, this is Wallbot.

现在我们看到的录像就是Wallbot。

Yes, absolutely.

是的。

So it moves up the wall.

它在墙上移动。

Yap, and so you'll see as the feet are coming off—it peels. This is slightly different from the gecko ,because the gecko actually has really soft toes and it peels back, and we are using more rigid surfaces. But it has the same principles behind all the biological things.

是的，可以看到机器人靠剥落吸盘移动。这点和壁虎稍有不同，因为壁虎的脚很柔软，能够自主地剥离墙面，而我们用的是更加坚硬的材质，但基本原理是相同的。

Pretty cool, what are some of the applications for this new technology?

很棒，这项技术如何应用呢？

So one of the things that we want to do is to take this really small robots and put them in such places where we could do surveilance and video monitoring. You can put different payloads into sensors and temperature monitor and all kinds of these things and moves the sensors around, which is really unique expect.

我们想做的是用这个小小的机器盛放监视器和显示器，或者任何重量的传感器，温度检测计等任何其他特殊仪器。

All right they are there on display in the museum of science.

这些机器人现在在科技馆展览对吗。

Yeah, they are. Come by and see them.

是的。欢迎参观。

All right, Casey Kute. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

好的，Casey Kute。谢谢你的介绍。

Thanks for having me.

谢谢。

And you'll be sure to join us every Thursday morning at this time for Si-tech Today or log on the museum of science website mos.org.

欢迎每周二早晨收看Si-tech Today，或是登录我们的网站mos.org。