The Spinybot climbs walls
Stanford professor Mark Cutkosky brings us yet another robot that's taken cues from biology, and yet another robot that climbs walls — the Spinybot uses 10 pairs of tiny spines on its toes to scale concrete, stucco or brick. Its tail rests against the wall to provide extra balance, a mounted video camera sends back the visuals, and a 400-gram payload can be delivered to its destination — although this initial version of the Spinybot has some work to be done on the software side before it can autonomously inspect buildings and deliver the goods. Like the Snakebot, one of its proposed applications is surveillance, so if you see one of these hanging out in a dark alley you might want to stash your stash.
