Founded in April 2001 as a focused research-and-development effort, Ithaca-based International Climbing Machines builds small, remote-controlled robots for inspecting and maintaining vertical, inverted and underwater surfaces. Its suction-held climbers can traverse obstacles such as bolt heads, weld seams and uneven contours while carrying inspection or maintenance tools, keeping operators on the ground during hazardous work. ICM also developed a magnetically held robot for cleaning and inspecting boiler tube walls in power plants.