Overview
A gecko-inspired robot that climbs smooth glass, tile and later wood paneling and painted metal using synthetic directional dry adhesive that grips when pulled one way and releases cleanly the other way. It came out of the RiSE project, was named one of Time's Best Inventions of 2006, and the team's IEEE Transactions on Robotics paper on it won the 2009 King-Sun Fu best paper award. The original was retired in July 2010 and replaced by Stickybot III. The adhesive work also fed Stanford's Z-Man project on gecko-inspired human climbing.
- Type
- Crawling robot · Climbers & inspection crawlers
- Maker
- Biomimetics & Dexterous Manipulation Lab, Stanford University (USA)
- Released
- 2006
- Price
- Not for sale
- Status
- Not for sale (research)
- Best for
- Professionals & labs
- Programming
- No programmability
Price and shipping
University research robot.
Shipping: Not for sale. A university research robot, not for sale. Stanford licenses the adhesive technology.
Specifications
| Category | Crawlers, snakes & climbers · Climbers & inspection crawlers |
|---|---|
| Released | 2006 |
| Country | USA |
| Availability | Not for sale (research) |
| Programmability | No programmability |
| Built-in autonomy | None / scripted · Moves only when controlled, or plays preset motions |
| LLM support | None · No built-in LLM and no SDK to connect one. |
| Best for | Professionals & labs |
| Vision sensors | No vision sensors |
| Actuators | Unknown |
| Audio | No audio |
| Compute type | Arduino / ESP32 / microcontroller |
| Remote control | Not programmable |
| Size | Stickybot III: 36 cm body plus 40 cm tail |
| Locomotion | Four legs with directional dry-adhesive toe pads, Stickybot III has 4 DoF per leg including wrist actuation |
| Compute | Stickybot III: local microprocessor servo controller per motor on a high-speed communication bus |
| Camera | None |
| Sensors | Not published |
| Runtime | Not published |
| Speed | ~5 cm/s (Stickybot III) |
| SDK | None public (lab gait uploader) |
Common questions
How much does Stickybot / Stickybot III cost?
Not for sale. University research robot.
Can Stickybot / Stickybot III be bought today?
No. It was never sold to the public.
Who makes Stickybot / Stickybot III?
Stickybot / Stickybot III is made by Biomimetics & Dexterous Manipulation Lab, Stanford University (USA). It came out in 2006.
Can Stickybot / Stickybot III be programmed?
No programmability. None public (lab gait uploader).
Does Stickybot / Stickybot III have AI chat or LLM support?
None. No built-in LLM and no SDK to connect one.
Ratings & reviews
Ratings and reviews load on the live site.
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