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Gecko Feet Inspire Hand-Held Spider-Man Paddles

Posted by samzenpus on from the wall-crawler dept.

ygslash (893445) writes DARPA is developing hand-held paddles that can be used to scale vertical walls. The adhesion technology employed in the paddles is based on Van der Waals force, inspired by the feet of certain species of geckos known for their excellent climbing ability. In a recent test, a man weighing almost 100 kg (220 lbs) and carrying a heavy pack that added about 23 kg (50 lbs) of additional weight, was able to scale a vertical glass wall almost 8 m (25 ft) high using the paddles. However, the paddles are reported to be 'not battlefield-ready yet.'

2 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Re:DARPA=bullshit by Cryacin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Are you sure you want to stick to that story?

    --
    Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
  2. Re:Uh Oh! Here comes Iron Man by cheater512 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There was also walking on water like some lizards and insects do, but no not quite similar.

    Van der Waals force isn't exactly a myth though, just a job for materials science.