Just when I think I’ve seen every possible iteration of climbing robot, someone comes up with a new way of getting robots to stick to things. The latest technique comes from the Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab at UCSD, where they’ve managed to get a robot to stick to smooth surfaces using a vibrating motor attached to a flexible disk. How the heck does it work?

According to a paper just published in Advanced Intelligent Systems, it’s due to “the fluid mediated adhesive force between an oscillatory plate and a surface” rather than black magic. Obviously.