Last year he and his team made a break-through by building a prototype enabling them to remotely climb up walls and around pipes.

CNN: Snake robots slither to the rescue

On a vacation tour through India in 2001 the pair batted around a dozen ideas for startups (including a device allowing people to climb up walls without ropes), though vending seemed to have the most potential.

FORBES: Cantaloupe System brings order to vending's chaos.

The robot (or snailbot) is comprised of moveable segments that ripple on top of a thin layer of synthetic snail sludge, and, just like its living counterpart, is able to climb up walls and stick to ceilings.

CNN: Snails inspire design for state-of-the-art robots

His research has resulted in the development of the first self-cleaning, dry adhesive and a number of gecko-like robots, including Stickybot, a mechanized lizard developed by Stanford University engineers that can climb up windows and walls using its own adhesive appendages.

CNN: Snails inspire design for state-of-the-art robots

"We've demonstrated their versatility, but I want to see a robot that can climb over rubble, up walls and wriggle through gaps, where the environment isn't controlled, " he said.

CNN: Snake robots slither to the rescue