Students Design Spider-Man Tech for Air Force

Marshall Honorof

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Feb 16, 2011
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Students Design Spider-Man Tech for Air Force

Utah State University engineers used a vacuum pack to ascend vertical walls.

Any comic book fan knows that Spider-Man does whatever a spider can, but soon the U.S. Air Force may take on one of the wall-crawler's unique abilities. The high-flying military branch sponsored a contest to see if college students could develop an efficient, personal system for climbing vertical walls. A group of engineers at Utah State University stepped up to the challenge and came up with a dual vacuum tube contraption. While the resulting creation is large and noisy, it brought its test subject up a wall safely, and the USAF wants the students to continue their research.


A video of the system demonstrates a student climbing up a vertical wall with a large pack strapped to his back (and a harness attached for safety). The pack consists of two vacuum tubes that generate suction in two handheld pads. Using these pads, the student is able to scale a wall one arm-length at a time without having to secure a spot atop the structure. Unfortunately, because of the racket the system generates (imagine two vacuum cleaners going off simultaneously), it's not ready for reconnaissance missions just yet, but the Air Force sees a promising start. The USU students will receive $100,000 to keep the project moving and develop something that the Air Force can take into the field.

If this project gets off the ground (so to speak), it will be for military purposes, so civilians should not expect to recreate their favorite issues of Spider-Man anytime soon. This means that there will be few opportunities to thrown off a bridge [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OKby8aXoO4], so we can probably call this one a draw.

Source: The Sacramento Bee [http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/12/4556170/video-utah-state-students-create.html]

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Kieve

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Jan 4, 2011
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DVS BSTrD said:
Don't give it to the military! Don't you realize this is another chance to create another minority superhero?

The Carpet Muncher!
Having seen some of your other quips, I think you're trying too hard on this one.

...Besides, everyone knows we'd see it abused by some supervillain calling himself the Dirt Devil...
 

Thaluikhain

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Jan 16, 2010
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Didn't Mythbusters build one of those and then give up? The machine worked, but it was a hell of a lot of effort for the person to climb.

And you'd want a surface that allowed for really good seals, or plummetting may result.
 

Waaghpowa

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Apr 13, 2010
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thaluikhain said:
Didn't Mythbusters build one of those and then give up? The machine worked, but it was a hell of a lot of effort for the person to climb.

And you'd want a surface that allowed for really good seals, or plummetting may result.
I believe the issue they had with it initially was that they could only maintain suction if both cups were planted on the surface they were climbing, but deduced that they would need a vacuum for every cup to get it right. Also keep in mind that they used 4 cups total. One on each hand and one on each knee. Or at least that's what I recall.
 

Revolutionary

Pub Club Am Broken
May 30, 2009
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Very cool but useless for any kind of stealth operation. Given that thing makes so much noise you may as well just blow the wall open.
 

weirdee

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Apr 11, 2011
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the noise issue was also covered on that episode, so they probably knew it was too loud to begin with

still, given that this was on a television show, i don't think they deserve any awards for innovation, lol
 

Redingold

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Mar 28, 2009
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Whatever happened to the gecko inspired dry adhesive? That's quiet, re-usable, and doesn't use any energy to stick to things. I coulda sworn that the US military was working on making that more practical for soldiers to use.

EDIT: Yes, DARPA's making it. It's called Z-Man. Trust the mad science division of the US government to come up with this: http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/DSO/Programs/Z_Man.aspx
 

Sandytimeman

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Jan 14, 2011
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laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

This is kinda cheating because this will never have a covert application which is what you would want it to be used for. Everyone from myself to the mythbusters have tried this idea. They should have kept continuing the micro-fiber idea.
 

martyrdrebel27

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thaluikhain said:
Didn't Mythbusters build one of those and then give up? The machine worked, but it was a hell of a lot of effort for the person to climb.

And you'd want a surface that allowed for really good seals, or plummetting may result.
that's exactly what i came here to say. they just ripped off mythbusters' design.
 

Hawk of Battle

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Feb 28, 2009
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There was also an old tv show where contestants would become a superhero based around a certain power and had to compete against each other. They had a small team to help them make their "powers" work. One episode had this exact same thing. It's not exactly new or groundbreaking tech and for military applications there's probably better ways of doing it.
 

Hero in a half shell

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Dec 30, 2009
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How do students get these opportunities? All I did in university was attend powerpoint presentations where the lecturer would double check his facts with the mature students, and the occasional field trip to a small village to stare at empty fields and housing estates.

Maybe it was just my course...
 

GLo Jones

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Feb 13, 2010
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Didn't the UK Gadget Show do this, like, 3 years ago? The guy climbed up the side of a fucking building about 80ft tall.
 

zachusaman

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Feb 28, 2012
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DVS BSTrD said:
Don't give it to the military! Don't you realize this is another chance to create another minority superhero?

The Carpet Muncher!
carpet muncher? nay, this is the cleanup man!!
he cleans up crimes and walls with his vacuums of righteousness!
 

flames09

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Nov 26, 2011
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Nice big target to shoot at! Why when you can use a rappel line? It will be pretty damn heavy for a while until it gets miniaturized.. if it even gets miniaturized.