The article
Geckos stick to things using van der Waal's forces generated between the tiny fibers on their toes and whatever surface they're on: it's not sticky in the same sense that glue or tape is sticky; it's a molecular attraction that works on the smoothest of surfaces and can be used over and over. It sounds like something that might be useful apart from robots, and it looks like artificial gecko toes are about to go mainstream, with super strong, reusable Geckskin. Geckskin, which is being developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,is able to stick to anything that's vaguely smooth, including glass, metal, drywall, and wood, and it even works on surfaces that are slightly curved.
future implcations
Human's washing windows? Not anymore. Now we've got a bot that can be modified to do that for us. Got maintenance to do on the outside of a skyscraper? Not anymore you don't. You've got a robot who can do that for you.