Screen capture from a Time story introducing the Stickybot.

A mechanical lizard developed in part by a Korean engineering student called Stickybot was selected as one of the Best Inventions 2006 by Time magazine. The Stanford University website says mechanical engineering student Sangbae Kim designed the robot that made it into the Toys category.

Stickybot’s feet have fine fibers that give it enough grip to climb straight up a glass wall just like a real gecko. A video of the machine performing this feat has become a top draw on YouTube.

“Real geckos skitter up walls, thanks to millions of tiny hairs on the bottom of each toe. The hundreds of sharply tapered synthetic fibers that pad the bot's four appendages replicate the gecko's fancy footwork, including an elegant toe-curl release, to climb glass, tile or whiteboard at a rate of 4 cm per second,” the magazine writes.

Stickybot was born with the financial support of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s RISE project. The goal was to create a robot that could be capable of walking up a wall with the same alacrity as a spider or other animals. Kim graduated in mechanical engineering from Yonsei University and then went to America to study at Stanford. He expects to receive his doctorate there next year.

(englishnews@chosun.com )