ICM's Climber robot ready to ascend

International Climbing Machines' Climber certainly isn't the first of its kind, but we'll admit, this thing can handle some pretty daunting tasks. After successfully lasting through a number of field deployments this year, this wall climber is reportedly ready to take on the world in assignments such as "climbing the surfaces of C-5 / C-137 airplanes, decontaminating a vessel in a Nuclear Power Plant and removing paint from concrete walls for the Department Of Energy." Apparently, this iteration trumps many similar alternatives due to its ability to scale ceilings, rounded / rough surfaces and overcome obstacles that protrude up to 1-inch from a given surface. The rig can be controlled from the ground with a handheld remote, and attachments can be added for painting, cleaning, drilling or just capturing imagery from above. Mum's the word on pricing, but feel free to check out a couple more shots after the jump.

[Via Gizmag]

[Richard Lai @ Nov 21st 2007 8:57PM]

Looks like a wall vacuum cleaner to me, but good work.

[Dennis @ Nov 22nd 2007 6:21AM]

sweet.... wall roombas! now i'll never have to touch my walls again!

[antje wilsch @ Nov 22nd 2007 12:03AM]

the hard hart doesn't engender much faith in his robot!

[mushrooshi @ Nov 21st 2007 9:01PM]

I first read "Ice Climbers"

[Luther @ Nov 21st 2007 9:16PM]

I did the same thing...I need to stop reading the Smash Bros. update page so much.

[nxtiak @ Nov 21st 2007 9:03PM]

What kind of controller is that?

[Jordan Biffle @ Nov 21st 2007 9:06PM]

Nice, he is using the same xbox controller i had.

[Simon @ Nov 21st 2007 9:30PM]

I, for one...oh never mind.

[Digital1 @ Nov 22nd 2007 12:36AM]

I, for one, welcome our robotic,wall climbing, spider-pig-bot, overlords. There you go! Finished it up for you! :-)

[Homeboy @ Nov 21st 2007 9:40PM]

Call me when it's cordless and has bluetooth.


Wiimote + Empire state building = Fun

[Zeus the God @ Nov 21st 2007 9:49PM]

Is that an original Xbox Controller S? Looks like it to me...

[Falcon Punch @ Nov 24th 2007 7:23PM]

be that a gamecube controller

[L.Cyphre @ Nov 22nd 2007 3:14AM]

Does the first pic remind anyone of Combine technology or is that only me?

[Holger @ Nov 22nd 2007 4:04AM]

Damn I wanna see a vid of this thing climbing walls... kinda impressive

[Richard Lai @ Nov 22nd 2007 6:23AM]

There is a video in the read link.

[Joseph Huberman @ Nov 22nd 2007 8:19AM]

Here is the video of the climber in action:
http://www.icm.cc/video.php
This is what I learned from their website:
http://www.icm.cc/climber.php
It uses compressible rollers and track to create a seal to the wall and a vacuum inside the seal holds it to the wall. It has an attachment capacity of about 200 lbs.