First-response gearNew device allows users to scale walls, mountain faces

Whether it is flying over a wall or swinging from building to building with ease, military forces, first responders, and search and rescue teams have long looked for ways to emulate these superheroes. A group of Utah State University mechanical and aerospace engineering students, using engineering principles, basic math, and ingenuity, have designed a system for special operations force personnel to scale buildings or mountain faces under a variety of conditions. The students’ efforts were part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Design Challenge. The design was a success that garnered the group first place in the national competition.

A Utah State University release reports that the Utah State University team, using three components — a vacuum ascender, an adhesive anchor, and a rope ascender — took its design to the National Center for Medical Readiness training facility in April to compete against sixteen universities that included Arizona State, Johns Hopkins, and Brigham Young University for the top honor.

In August 2011 teams were given the warfighter-focused engineering design challenge, $20,000 for materials and fabrication, and nine months to come up with a demonstrable solution. Teams were judged on both objective measures (weight, size, velocity achieved) and subjective measures (ease of operation, usability, stealth, innovation and elegance).

The team ended up with a design that allows a person to put their hands and feet into a spider like vacuum contraption allowing them to climb a wall. After reaching the top of the wall, the climber then places adhesive anchors on the top of the structure before sending down a rope strong enough to hold 300 pounds with which the other team members are able to ascend the wall.

“We went into this competition not knowing what the requirements were going to be,” said T. J. Morton, mechanical and aerospace engineering student and team captain. “The competition allowed us to use everything we had learned about in our engineering courses and apply it to a genuine design problem.”

During the course of the school year, the team went through several trial and error ideas before coming up with the one that worked.

“I really liked this challenge because it was hard,” said mechanical aerospace engineering professor and team mentor Steve Hansen. “Coming up with a viable and practical solution really challenged the students.”

The release notes that during the competition, the teams briefed judges, safety officers, and pararescue jumpers from the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron