The Scorpion robot, brainchild of German engineer Frank Kirchner, can descend steep cliffs, climb rough terrain, and squeeze into crannies that are inaccessible to larger, wheeled vehicles.

The NASA could use the robot on Mars to explore cliffs or areas that are too small or rocky for a car-sized rover to reach. Scorpion could “go into these areas, look at the geology and pick up samples”, suggests Silvano Colombano, a NASA scientist.

It could also be handy on Earth, to investigate mines or search for earthquake survivors trapped in rubble.

Video.

PDF of the project.

Via Nature.

Other robots inspired by lovely little creatures: worm robot, Leurre, AMouse, robot bug, etc.