Alpha Go, a Google company has released video of an extremely versatile insect robot that can do most things any real flying insect can do. C|NET reports about the new creepy-crawly robot: Not can the robot only fly, being propelled in the air by quadrotor helicopters, it can also land on a vertical wall then climb up it using spiny feet. When it slips a little, it can adjust on the fly. It’s called the Stanford Climbing and Aerial Maneuvering Platform, or SCAMP, and it combines lessons learned from previous machines built at the university’s Biomimetics and Dextrous Manipulation Lab. “Quadrotors have limited endurance because of restrictions on battery capacity and the physics of small-scale flight, but perching can allow them to operate for hours or even days, gathering data or performing communication tasks while stationary,” explained Morgan Pope, lead author of a paper on the project currently in review, in an article on IEEE. He further explains that perching perfectly is difficult for robots, but this drone is able to reposition itself if it lands improperly thanks to its climbing abilities. The lab has been working on building climbing robots for some years, starting with spined feet that grip rough surfaces, much [...]