Snake Robots from Carnegie Mellon

Posted on 14/04/2006 by wcox in Science
ImageThe AP has an interesting piece on Carnegie Mellon's snake robots. The research, lead by Howie Choset, is aimed at disaster situations where a small snake could maneuver much better than a resuce worker.

"Right now, the way to get to these trapped survivors is to pull the rubble out one rock at a time," Choset said. "So our dream is to have the snake robot thread through this collapsed rubble and get to victims more quickly."

The robots are semi-autonomous, and are remotely guided by a radio controller. They are controlled with servo motors and battery powered. The Snake's website, shows video of them crawling in a sinusoidal motion, rolling, swimming, and crawling through pipes.

Unfortunately, Choset says the robots wont be ready for prime-time for another 5 to 10 years.

Another prominant snakebot builder is Dr. Gavin Miller. You'll also want to check out this amazing amphibious snakebot from Japan.




Flag this post

Thanks for helping to keep our community civil!


Notify staff privately
It's Spam
This post is an advertisement, or vandalism. It is not useful or relevant to the current topic.

You flagged this as spam. Undo flag.Flag Post