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.

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.

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." ...