The object
Mark Cutkosky co-invented Stickybot, a gecko-inspired climbing robot using directional dry adhesives to move on smooth vertical surfaces. Its manufactured adhesive feet and robot mechanism translated biological attachment into reusable engineering hardware for inspection, rescue and wall-climbing machines.
01
What Mark did
Co-invented Stickybot and its directional dry-adhesive climbing mechanism with Sangbae Kim and collaborators.
02
Why it matters
Stickybot was named among TIME's Best Inventions of 2006 and its dry-adhesion methods became a widely cited robotics and materials-design breakthrough.
03
Living-status check
Stanford's current 2026 faculty profile lists Cutkosky as an active professor and director of the Center for Design Research, positive evidence he was alive in 2026.