Researchers have designed an all terrain search and rescue robot that mimics the movements of a snake in order to cross rough terrain.
How would you feel if you were trapped in an inaccessible area and a search and rescue robot that slithered like a snake came up to rescue you?
Alright, so maybe this robot doesn’t exactly slither, but it would still make Indiana Jones cringe. According to our source, the robot geniuses over at Georgia Tech, studied the movements of over 20 different species of snakes before settling on a final design for their Scalybot 2.
Much like a snake, the robot automatically adjusts the angle of its scales when it encounters different kinds of terrain in order to better hug their surface. Thanks to a remote operator, who uses an Xbox-like controller, the robot is able to move forwards or backwards and shift it’s angles in order to turn.
It’s not the first time the researchers at Georgia Tech have experimented with animal like movements. These guys have also done research in the past on the movements of mosquitos, and their ability to navigate through heavy rainstorms, as well as the ability some animals have to simply shake water off their bodies.
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Check out the video below to see what it’s like in action.
