Clothbot climbs the wrinkles in your clothes

Jacob Aron, technology reporter

Feel a tickling sensation moving up your trouser leg? Watch out, it could be a robot. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed Clothbot, a tiny robot capable of scaling clothes and other cloth objects.

The robot used a wheeled gripping mechanism to create wrinkles in a piece of cloth then simply drives straight up them. It also has a moving tail that adjusts its centre of gravity and allows it to change direction.

Clothbot weighs just 140 grams, so won't leave you feeling weighed down, but why exactly would you want a clothes-climbing bot? Its creators say that Clothbot could be a tiny pet that climbs around your body, or even a moving phone that sits on your shoulder, leaving your hands free. I imagine it would also be great for frightening your more arachnophobic friends.

The researchers presented Clothbot at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in St Paul, Minnesota earlier this week. At the same conference last year we learnt of a clothes-folding robot - perhaps the two bots should team up.

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