Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Wall-climbing Robots



From Gizmodo:
Here are four robots that leave me unsettled in four unique ways. The robots in this clip, developed at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, each employ their own distinctive method of wall-climbing. This snail-inspired bot uses hot glue.

One of the robots is equipped with magnetic treads for sticking to any metal surface. Another, looking like some sort of terrifying mechanical arachnid, has four legs with fishing hooks for scuttling around on textured surfaces. I already worry about spiders crawling on my walls. Now, thanks to the roboticist behind the project, Amir Shapiro, I have to worry about robots creeping up on me too.

The least menacing of the bunch, seen in the video climbing a white board, has four tiny wheels covered in 3M sticky tape, allowing it to roll slowly across smooth vertical surfaces. That guy? He's OK with me. [Bot Junkie]

Gizmodo story link.

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