A lab at MIT under Annette Hosoi has developed a small climbing robot modeled after a snail. Using a sticky gel, it can climb on vertical surfaces or even upside down.

The team tested out their snail on a tilting platform, covered with a 1.5-millimetre-thick layer of slime made from Laponite, a type of clay that forms a clear, sticky gel when mixed with water.

The robot is being used to test mathematical models of snail locomotion.

Link at News@Nature

Related Posts: Costeau’s Robotic Shark Suit, Reproducing Robots

Popularity: 4% [?]

Digg this | Hugg this

See Also: How to Survive a Robot Uprising,36% of MIT’s trash comes back,MIT Museum,

This entry was posted by Jeffrey Warren on Wednesday, December 14th, 2005 at 10:14 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.