Skip to main content

Disney made a tiny robot car that can drive up walls

Disney made a tiny robot car that can drive up walls

Share this story

Disney's research arm has been quietly churning out impressive, occasionally unnerving experiments for some time now, and its latest is a particularly inspired bit of engineering: a small, four-wheeled robot with the uncanny ability to climb up walls.

The robot, VertiGo, was created through a partnership between Disney Research Zurich and the university ETH Zurich. By rolling up to a wall and adjusting two propellors attached to it, the robot can climb up and continue moving at a surprisingly brisk pace. "By transitioning from the ground to a wall and back again, VertiGo extends the ability of robots to travel through urban and indoor environments," the researchers write about the project. "The robot is able to move on a wall quickly and with agility."

It's not clear exactly what Disney might want the concept for, but it's a neat enough trick that it's not hard to see it showing up in some kind of consumer product down the road.

Robot showdown Deebot vs Neato vs. Roomba