This isn’t exactly breaking science news, but it is still a pretty cool demonstration of electrostatic force.

I saw this news over at Popular Mechanics, and according to them the inventors of this lovely device are a non-profit group called SRI. They will be unveiling this new design of a wall-climbing robot shortly, but until then you’ll have to watch the video from the original story.

What’s happening here is basically the same as when you rub a balloon against your hair and it sticks to the wall. There is a buildup of electric charge on the balloon as a result of rubbing it on your hair, and because of this it is able to stick to most wall surfaces. The vehicle does the same thing, creating an electric charge on a large surface of the car (probably on the belt it uses to move), causing a strong enough attraction to the wall to overcome gravity.

If i had to guess, I’d say that the car was built much like a Van der Graaf generator, which is basically a machine made for creating a huge amount of electrostatic charge (you might recognize it if you see one, it’s basically a pole with a big metal sphere on top, it’ll emit sparks if you get too close). Van der Graaf generators are fairly simple contraptions, consisting of a conveyor belt that literally transfers electrons from small needles at the bottom, to the sphere on top (check out HowStuffWorks.com’s guide to Van Der Graaf generators if you want to know more). My guess is that the belt that is moving the machine, works in much the same way, collecting electrons onto the belt and using them to “stick” to the wall. I’m sure there is more to it, and there’s a pretty good chance that i’m just talking out of my ass, but hey, it’s fun to guess. If you think you know how it works, leave comments! I’d love to hear your ideas.