City Climber rover: Spider-Man minus the drama
Sure, Spider-Man is great and all, but is all the emotional, moral and relational drama really worth it when you could just spend a few thousand on this here City Climber which does about the same thing? The robot, being developed by Jizhong Xiao and his team at the City College of New York, is targeted at New York City's mandate that requires building facades to be inspected every five years. Manual inspection usually involves suspended scaffolding and costs around $5000 a day, more than Jizhong hopes to sell his City Climber for outright. The bot clings to all sorts of surfaces using a vacuum motor to create the pressure it needs to hold on. Weighing in at 2.2 pounds, the device can carry a payload up to four times its own weight, so it shouldn't have much trouble towing along a camera or two for building inspections. By linking dual Climber modules with a hinged arm, the bot is capable of rounding 90 degree corners, or moving from a wall to the roof. Test runs should be happening this summer, spidey sense to follow next year.
[Thanks, William]