In one embodiment, a mobile robot energizes its state-variable anchor into a released state while contacting a payload, and then de-energizes it to put it into an anchored state, attaching it to the payload. The mobile robot may then move the payload to a mounting location while the state-variable anchor is de-energized and attached to the payload. As such, the mobile robot may then energize a state-variable anchor of the payload to put it into a released state while at and contacting the mounting location, and then de-energizes it to put it into an anchored state to attach the payload to the mounting location. To then detach the state-variable anchor of the mobile robot and the mobile robot from the payload after the payload is attached to the mounting location, the mobile robot may then energize the state-variable anchor of the mobile robot to put it into a released state.