Climbing

The ANYmal quadruped robot not only walks on four legs, it can also roll on four wheels, stand up, throw boxes, and make its way up and down stairs. As if all that wasn't enough, the thing can now also climb ladders.

Scientists have created a four-legged bio-inspired robot that climbs like no other. It clings to rough vertical surfaces utilizing a unique mechanism that is highly effective, yet at the same time relatively simple.

A new wheeled robot is able to climb metal structures in a clever and unique way – it uses an extendible tape-measure limb. Descendants of the bot may one day find use inspecting or repairing things like towers, bridges, power stations and ships.

Swiss researchers are working on an environmental monitoring robot named Avocado that's been inspired by abseiling spiders. The fruit-shaped bot uses a winch and rotors to lower itself through the canopy and gather data on life in the treetops.

Inspections of tall metal structures can be difficult for people to perform up-close and in person, and while aerial drones may help, their limited battery life is a problem. That's where the magnetic-footed Magnecko robot is intended to come in.

It's safe to say that any task which involves going up high is at least somewhat dangerous. The HB1 robot was designed with this fact in mind, as it climbs walls and even scuttles across ceilings so people don't have to.

As the population increasingly moves towards tech jobs, there's now a shortage of coconut harvesters in India. That's why scientists there have built a tree-climbing coconut-harvesting robot, that could perhaps someday take up the slack.

The CopenHill facility in Denmark was already a particularly versatile space, but yet another activity is being added to its repertoire. The finishing touches have now been added to what is claimed to be the tallest climbing wall in the world.

While there already are powered suction-cup devices that allow people or robots to climb walls, they only work on smooth surfaces. Chinese scientists, however, have now developed a system that sticks to rough surfaces via spinning water.

​Every ounce matters for climbers hauling gear up big walls, so essential items billed as the lightest in the world are always going to attract a bit of interest. That is very much the case with the G7 Pod wall ledge which offers a very lightweight alternative to the hefty portaledges.

Reaching into your pocket to answer the phone just isn't an option when you're charging down a snow-covered mountain or white-knuckling a set of mountain bike grips. So the all-new Bonx rides on your ear and streamlines communications in the field.

At small climbing centers, regular visitors can quickly exhaust all the available runs. At a new facility in the US city of Austin, Texas, which is said to be the world's largest bouldering center, climbing sections are rotated twice a week to create new runs.