Video: Upside-down robots

Tankbot deftly scales walls, and even carries small payloads (Image: Carnegie Mellon University)

THE ability to scale walls and hang off the ceiling with gecko-like ease may be within reach – for robots at least.

Metin Sitti and Ozgur Unver of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, say their new robots – a sticky-tracked wall climber and a 16-legged ceiling walker – could tackle many jobs in the home including painting ceilings and clearing cobwebs. They could also play a part in exploration, inspection, repair and even search and rescue.

“The robots could play a part in exploration, inspection, repair and even search and rescue” …