Snake-Like Robot Can Crawl on Land or Swim

Check out this amazing video of an amphibious snake-like robot, the ACM-R5. Unfortunately, the video is in Japanese, but there's lots of great camera shots.


Each joint has an encoder and two degrees of freedom.

Update: There's a rough translation after the jump.



Here's a rough translation of the video courtesy of Robots-Dreams.com.

Source: The Tokyo Institute of Technology graduate school machine space system speciality Hirose laboratory Foundation science-and-engineering promotion meeting.

It corresponds to the disaster victim rescue in rubble also at the liquefaction according power to an exertion earthquake.

The robot is in the shape of a snake which allows it to penetrate into narrow environments.

In this case the robot was born for the first time in 1972. It looks for the disaster victim in the house and rubble which collapsed or inspects under the eaves, the underpart of the roof, etc. of a house, he has demonstrated power.

However, while research and development in various robots in the shape of a snake was done previously, there was no robot in the shape of a snake which presents practical use as a mobile robot for outdoor work.

This time, "ACM-R5" which appears in love and can say it also as the extreme form.

He is a completely new robot in the shape of a snake which united the two robots in the shape of a snake "HELIX" in which underwater movement is possible with "ACM-R3" in which 3-dimensional movements, such as level difference riding movement, are possible with sealing structure.

This amphibious earthquake-prone country and Japan robot in the shape of a snake attracts attention from the world as a disaster relief robot.

Since it has sealing structure, it is an advantage that it can apply also under the liquefaction in case of an earthquake.

A motor and control apparatus are ACM-R5 which is stored inside the body case sealed by Jaballah, and has 2 flexibility joint.

Even if it equips a power transfer part with the overcurrent protection mechanism using friction and receives big external force, it is the feature that a drive mechanism can be protected.

Moreover, although the cases where an optical fiber is laid in the earth are increasing in number in recent years, generally piping which lets an optical fiber pass at each home from a basic line is narrow, and it is not rare for construction to be difficult.

The robot in the shape of a snake which can advance also into such narrow piping is expected to play a role also in acceleration of the optical Internet network.

length 1,960mm

body diameter 80mm

body size 130mm

Weight (a fillet is included) of 8kg

Time 30-minute (schedule)

operation [land] meandering movement, [ which can be power lithium ion battery worked ]

14 Side winding

[Underwater] spiral movement etc.

15 operation remote control:

the radio control system use environmental land by R/C, and other underwater and specification [joint characteristic] and movable region:

45-degree and torque: -- 7.94N.m

speed: -- 1.68 rad./sec.

protection instrument: -- mechanical torque limiting circuit

CPU:32bit

16 microcontroller and paragraph communication:
-- serial communication and external input-and-output: by a CAN bus
-- it carries in wireless communications (R/C, image), charge, and terminal (tip paragraph) a [sensor system] and a miniature camera:head paragraph, and an image is transmitted and received.
- posture sensor:
-- an acceleration sensor and gyroscope from it constitutes having a robot's attitude control, picture
compensation of a camera, etc.
- Torque sensor - : measure each joint torque and use it for side
control control.