Gecko gloves

Using paddles coated with a novel polymer microstructure technology inspired by animals and developed for DARPA by Draper Laboratory of Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., humans are now able to scale vertical walls. Announces program manager Matt Goodman, "The gecko is one of the champion climbers in the animal kingdom, so it was natural for DARPA to look to it for inspiration in overcoming some of the maneuver challenges that U.S. forces face in urban environment. Like many of the capabilities that the Department of Defense pursues, we saw with vertical climbing that nature had long since evolved the means to efficiently achieve it. The challenge to our performer team was to understand the biology and physics in play when geckos climb and then reverse-engineer those dynamics into an artificial system for use by humans.”

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