Spectrum has recently profiled Israeli roboticist Amir Shapiro, who develops bio-inspired robots at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beersheba, Israel. I asked Shapiro if he had any videos of his wall-climbing bots. I'm glad I asked. He's just posted the clip above showing four of his creations: 1. A magnetic robot capable of climbing on metal surfaces; 2. A snail-inspired robot that secrets hot melt glue to stick to walls; 3. A robot that has 3M sticky tape on its wheels and can climb on smooth surfaces like a whiteboard or glass; 4. A four-legged wall bot that uses claws made of fishing hooks to climb rough surfaces like a cat or rodent. Fore more about Shapiro's work, visit his sites: https://www.bgu.ac.il/~ashapiro and https://bgurobots.pbworks.com/
Erico Guizzo is the Director of Digital Innovation at IEEE Spectrum, and cofounder of the IEEE Robots Guide, an award-winning interactive site about robotics. He oversees the operation, integration, and new feature development for all digital properties and platforms, including the Spectrum website, newsletters, CMS, editorial workflow systems, and analytics and AI tools. An IEEE Member, he is an electrical engineer by training and has a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.
