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back to article Behold: The Gecko-robot wall-climbing tank!

Boffins have taken their inspiration from the gecko to develop a tank robot that can scale completely smooth walls and shuffle along ceilings. Researchers from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, looked at the little sticky pads on the toes of geckos and recreated the van der Waals forces - very weak, …

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  1. Crofty616
    Terminator

    I think all that's left to say is that I, for one, welcome our new wall climbing robotic tank overlords. ;)

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If you have a tank...

    You want to be able to run /through/ walls, not go over them IMO.

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  3. frank ly
    Coat

    I for one.....

    ...welcome our wall traversing overlords.

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  4. Armitage
    Terminator

    MGS4?

    Give it a few more years and we will all bowing down to our new masters, unless someone gets a handheld railgun developed

    http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Gekko

    >.<

    I've played MGS4 and i've seen the future

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  5. J.G.Harston Silver badge
    Boffin

    "The adhesive pads on geckos follow this same principle"

    Prior art! It's the robot that follows the same principle as the gecko, not the other way around.

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    1. K. Adams
      Reply Icon
      Pirate

      But then there'd be no excuse...

      ... to sue the geckos, would there?

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  6. Clay P. Igion
    Thumb Up

    Slap a camera on the front and a hook of some sort on the back, and you've got the just the tool I've dreamed about for running new wires through existing walls. (Network cable, telephone line, power cab<zzzrt>)

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Wonderful

    How do they get it off once it's stuck on? Can it be scaled up? I'd like to see one with a chair for use as a stair lift for the elderly you could deploy them quickly to create temporary elderly care homes though getting the daredevil pensioners back to ground child be tricky, bugger free climbing my father'd be scaling any glass building he could find.

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    1. Peter2 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      I'm not certain that it's that good yet. A couple of points in the video appeared to show someone holding his hands underneath it in case it fell off.

      I would expect that it's right at the limit for the weight it can hold at the moment. Given, that performance is pretty impressive but I suspect that real world applications are a long way off.

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  8. Marc 1

    I want to see this tech...

    ... installed on that nightmarish gasoline and hydraulic powered military mule robot.

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  9. John P
    Mushroom

    I for one welcome our yadda yadda yadda overlords.

    Pic - the unavoidable result of the overlord invasion...

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