Vortex Bots Can Drive You Up The Wall

Do you remember that one Batman Forever movie where Batman is driving the Batmobile down a dead-end alley while Two-Face’s bad guys chase after him? His only chance of escape is to literally drive up a wall, accomplished with grappling hooks. I don’t know how Batman got down from that apartment building he drove up to, but there is a new technology that could allow Batman to do this without all the wires, especially in that Tumbler from Batman Begins.

A company called Vortex Holding, LLC has figured out how to make a wheeled vehicle that drives up walls. This Vortex Regenerative Air Movement Mobile Robot Platforms (VRAMMRPs) use this patented technology called “tornado in a cup” that allows their remote-controlled vehicles to vacuum themselves to walls, even ceilings. Not only can it attach to the wall, but they can move along like a spider with wheels.

As you can see from the footage, the first remote-controlled vehicle seems to be climbing the wall without any resistance. Not only that, it goes from the floor to the wall pretty seamlessly.

Once it gets to the roof, the remote controlled toy reveals itself as a spybot as it sprouts a Bluetooth-secure camera. Not only can it use its R2-D2-like periscope to look on rooftops, but it can peek around windows as well. Looks like several people got their privacy violated in the making of this film.

Their second VRAMMRP was even more impressive as it was two cars linked together like railroad cars. This gives that little robot the power to go around corners, which is something that the current model does a little awkwardly. It loses a little altitude as it tries to go up, and the bugs probably need to be removed before the military and other spy organizations start using it in the field.

They also probably need to figure out how to how to get rid of all the noise that the remote monsters make. They are about as quiet as vacuum cleaners, despite the website’s claim of “minimized audible sound emission”. At least it’s controllable by joystick, which ought to make some user’s inner child happy. I’ve heard the battery can only last for 20 to 40 minutes, which makes for short spying.

Well, if these little guys ever do get perfected, then who knows? Maybe we can put these little “tornado on a cup” things on our cars and start driving up the walls. Yeah, that was stupid, but you got to admit, these devices really suck. Oh man, enough already!