The Clothbot was designed by a team from the Chinese Academy of Science, and it uses a special set of gripper wheels to help it ascend textiles. The tiny robot weighs just under 5 ounces, but is incredibly adept at handling the challenging surface of fabric. In the demo video below, we see Clothbot climbing a shirt, and then pair of pants:

Why, you may ask, would you need a robot that can climb your pants? Its creators think that the Clothbot could be the foundation for small robotic pets that could climb on us, or the slightly more ridiculous idea of a robotic cellphone which could saddle itself on your shoulder to free your hands – guess they never heard of a Bluetooth headset. They also suggest the idea of robotic “body inspection.” Um, no thanks. On the other hand, tiny robot pets that climb on us sound kind of fun – at least until Skynet gets a hold of them.

[via IEEE Spectrum]

DARPA plans on releasing a modified version of these robots as a platform for those participating in the Robotics Challenge but are using the government-funded equipment option. It’s expected that the final version of the platform robot will be a complete humanoid, with two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. But even without all of those body parts, the robots shown in this clip are damned impressive.

Those slow-mo sound effects of the climbing ‘bot are going to give me nightmares. Still, it’s pretty amazing to see that we’re on the verge of full-size humanoid robots that can walk, climb and even perform exercises just like us. I also like that these robots are wearing shoes. Now, drop and give me 20, PETMAN!

It’s called “Dream Robo” and was actually shown off last year during the Shanghai Expo. It stands 1.4m high, weighs about 30kg and moves using five motors that are built into its body. It also only wears clothes on one half of it’s metal frame for some reason.

As they improve the technology, this guy could be used to help people in disaster situations, maybe serve as a window washer, save kittens in trees or do any number of other duties. Put a Spider-Man costume on him and you have robo-Spidey. It’s pretty impressive that this robot can climb as well as it does, when you consider how difficult it is to make a robot walk well.

[via TechCrunch]

Now a Canadian research team has gotten very close. They have designed a tank-like robot that can roll up walls using the same molecular “clinging” technique. The robot can cling and move around on a variety of smooth and uneven surfaces and can support it’s entire weight while doing so. This technology has all kinds of applications. From window cleaning, to spying, to climbing the debris in disaster areas.

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Unlike other animals, the gecko sticks to walls and ceilings using the very force that attracts molecules together. This force is called the Van der Waals force. Here’s how they explain it:

A gecko’s toes are covered with tiny hair-like fibers called setae and each of these is covered with tiny structures called spatulae, each less than a micron wide. (Thousands could fit in a human hair). Molecules on the surfaces of the spatulae are attracted to molecules on the wall. On each individual spatula, the molecular attraction is very weak. But working together, the Van der Waals forces between the molecules of the spatulae and the surface are enough to hold up the entire gecko. In fact, the force is so strong that some species of gecko could theoretically support the weight of an entire human.

Lots of small structures working together to create a larger force. The key here is that they have found a way to not only make artificial setae, but they have made them strong enough to carry the weight of the robot, while being more responsive to changes in surface roughness and they are shaped into a band that is essentially a tank tread.

Now that they have figured out some key factors with this robot, I can’t wait to see how much more they can learn.

[via Discovery]

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The bot is 10 centimeters long and weighs just 15 grams, so the design definitely helps it to be speedy. The back two legs are passive and the legs are driven by a single motor that delivers a gait frequency of 34 strides per second. It’s a very impressive little ‘bot. Let’s hope it doesn’t escape the lab and reproduce.

[via IEEE Spectrum]

These three guys have been gradually climbing up and down a 15-minute wall in 20-minute intervals for more than half a year. Again, for no particular reason from what I can tell, except to entertain us.

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The whole mechanic reminds me of the classic arcade game Crazy Climber. All they need is someone dropping flower pots, some windows that close on their hands, and a condor dropping eggs and poop on the climbers, and they’d be all set.

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[Robonable (JP) via CrunchGear]

Designed by Boston Dynamics, working with researchers from The University of Pennsylvania’s Kod*lab, the RiSE V3 robot can work its way up poles without cracking so much as a sweat. The 28-inch long quadruped robot can make its way up vertical terrains at a rate of 21cm (a little more than 8 inches) per second. That’s definitely faster than I could climb a telephone pole.

Created for use in search and rescue missions, reconnaissance and surveillance, the four-legged robot has claws crafted from surgical needles, letting it grip vertical surfaces. With claws like that, I’m really glad that Skynet hasn’t gotten their hands on an army of these. Yet.

While the RiSE V3 robot manages to quickly shimmy its way up a pole in the video clip below, they’ve still got it tied off to a rope so their precious creation doesn’t come crashing to the ground when it reaches the top of the pole.

And in another cat-like move, I’m not sure if they’ve figured out how to get it to climb back down to the ground safely.

[via Technology Review via Designboom]