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Snake Robots: Can You Watch This Without Squirming?
Are you afraid of snakes? What about robots? What about snake robots?
Now here’s one of those new innovations in robotics that’s solving problems by combining two things that don’t quite seem to go together at first thought.
Today Ever Widening Circles will take you on a little journey of possibility when it comes to pure ingenuity
Did you ever stop to ask yourself why most of us envision the human form when we think of the word “Robot?” What if the real potential of robotics lies with thinking outside that box? Here’s your introduction to snake robotics!
Having the flexibility and movements of a slithering reptile allows these robots to squeeze into spaces that their human-form, mechanical cousins, and we humans, haven’t been able to explore. They will can do so much more! We will be able to identify structural problems in hidden places, perform minimally invasive surgery, and find survivors in fragile search and rescue missions (to name a few applications).
This impressive innovation, which obviously has adopted its looks from a little friend in nature, is just one incredible example of biomimicry; a growing field of science at the intersection of engineering, design, and biology.
Here’s a quick look at where we are going today…After we get over the impulse to recoil from how snake-like it is, we can see that this robot has some incredible abilities and applications. Can you even imagine what it will be able to do underwater?
Visit the link below Check it out in action in this video from HiBot.
So, what really is the potential for the snake robot?
Just think of the many dirty jobs that, performed by humans, endanger lives. Or the jobs that require access to small spaces, spaces that even conventional robots, with limbs or wheels, could never access. Consider the possibility of assisting in minimally-invasive surgery, for inspection of power plants, for aiding in search and rescue efforts, in archaeological digs.
“Snake Robot Climbs a Tree.” YouTube. ↩
“HiBot NEW ACM-R5H Amphibious Snake Robot.” YouTube. Michele Guarnieri, 5 Nov
