Researchers at Stanford are trying to give drones another of insects' useful traits: the ability to land on vertical walls, and even upside down. They've already gotten pretty far on a system that lets drones do that. As one of the researchers writes at IEEE Spectrum, the setup has two parts: a rigid tail, and a pair of "microspines." The tail allows the drone to correctly position itself while landing; the two microspines, which are really just small textured pads, are then dragged along the wall, where they catch on microscopic grooves in the surface.
An earlier version of the tech was shown this time last year, but a new video demonstrates the researchers' progress. They have it set up on a modified commercial drone and are able to...
via The Verge
