Gecko’s sticky feet seem to let the little climbing lizards crawl wherever they want. ... Sticky-footed robots could climb future spacecraft. By Amina Khan . Jan. 2, 2014 3:54 PM PT .

A sticky-footed robot that can climb rocky cliff faces while carrying five times its own mass has been developed in Switzerland. It could act as a scout for mountain rescue teams, ...

A sticky-footed robot that can climb rocky cliff faces while carrying five times its own mass has been developed in Switzerland. It could act as a scout for mountain rescue teams, help construction ...

ZURICH, Switzerland, May 8 (UPI) -- Swiss researchers say they've created a sticky-footed robot that can climb rocky cliff faces while carrying five times its own weight.

However, those are all-sticky-all-the-time duplications, which the geckos can go one better by being sticky-footed or not at will.

Harvard's sticky-footed inspection robot can climb through jet engines. HAMR-E is based on an earlier Harvard robot that can scurry around like bugs and even walk on water.

A new biologically inspired robot could one day crawl over the surface of an asteroid or Mars and gather samples for study using lots of tiny, mechanical "toes." ...

Many gecko groups lost these adaptations when they changed their lifestyles, from wall-scuttling to, say, burrowing in sand. There, sticky feet would have been a hindrance, and they were lost.