Gecko Inspired Robot Climbs Walls at Stanford

telomerewhythere writes "Stanford mechanical engineer Mark Cutkosky is using the biology of a gecko's sticky foot to create a robot that climbs. In the same way the small reptile can scale a wall of slick glass, the Stickybot can climb smooth surfaces with feet modeled on the intricate design of gecko toes. The team's new project involves scaling up the material for humans. A technology called Z-Man, which would allow humans to climb with gecko adhesive, is in the works."

Comments

Prototype This...?

[Omega Hacker]

Apparently /. missed seeing this episode something like 2 years ago, where they tried this as well as another tech for climbing. The gecko foot was very hard to reproduce and didn't have the cling, while feet made of 100's of jointed fish-hooks successfully took a human a few dozen feet up a wall. Yay for old news...