DARPA Z-Man Geckskin

This is actually from 2008, but it’s a pretty good overview of DARPA projects:

From the “ones to watch”:

Z-man: The aim: to allow soldiers to scale vertical walls without ropes or ladders at a rate of 0.5 metres a second. The solution: mimic the microscopic hairs, or “setae”, that allow geckos to stroll up walls and across ceilings. Small robots that climb using synthetic setae have already been demonstrated, but DARPA hopes to extend this technology to humans.

Full Story: New Scientist: Fifty years of DARPA: Hits, Misses And Ones To Watch

DARPA Z-Man page