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The videos are great, consumes a lot less water than I imagined. Seems like most of the water is lost during the de-suction process, if they can scavenge that it could really cut the water consumption down nearly to zero.

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Speed is also an issue, the video is speed up 2x and the progress is still quite slow.

Sure, but this is only an initial prototype. I'm sure we could make it work faster/more efficient with a few more design iterations.

If they have an additional ring around the outside of each cup, could they not suction the water back into the system?

Also, wouldnt this be easily defeatable with small dowel protruding "thorns" - or dimples, as on a golf ball - maybe alternating convex/concave dimple patterns? or other ridges?

I don't think anyone is building suction robot proof buildings yet. It can barely climb the buildings we have now.

I don’t think it’s possible to build a suction cup (or in fact any climbing tool) which will work 100% of the time against any countermeasure. However this design does seem a significant step forward from existing suction cups.

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