In a laboratory in Connecticut, a palm-sized silicone robot scrunches up its body to inch forward in a caterpillar-like motion. A brick tips over onto its leg, trapping it as it struggles to move on.

Researchers develop a nanostructured dry adhesive with a rotating core that grips strongly on misaligned surfaces, improving robotic and precision handling tasks. Dry adhesives that rely on van der ...

Gecko Robotics builds robots. Hence the name. It builds all kinds of robots -- crawling, swimming, flying -- but is best known for robots that can climb surfaces vertically (like a gecko lizard), ...