Vacuum Climber Device Lets You Climb Walls Like Spider-Man (Video)

Vacuum Climber Device (Youtube)

A vacuum climber device, invented by a team of engineering students from Utah State University allows one to climb walls a little like Spider-Man.

The PVAC, short for personal vacuum assisted climber, consists of two hand-held paddles attached to a vacuum pack that creates a powerful suction force — enough to scale a wall with. A stirrup hang beneath the pads, where users can place their foot.

The device also has a gauge which indicates safe vacuum levels and a volt meter that let climbers know if they were about to run out of juice.


The students, who call themselves the Ascending Aggies, presented the technology to the U.S. military during the  2012 Service Academy and University Engineering Challenge, where it took the first prize and won $100,000 grant. The competition required teams to design gadgets that would allow soldiers to safely and quickly ascend vertical surfaces. The devices also had to be reusable, permit multiple pitches within one climb, allow the operator to keep one hand free for using other equipment, and be capable of getting three people each carrying 300-pound (136 kg) loads up a 90-foot (27.5-meter) vertical silo within 20 minutes.
 
But using the PVAC in a military setting could prove somewhat problematic, depending on the context: Those powerful vacuums give off an equally powerful, ear-piercing engine noise.