Snakes, besides being hideous for some of us, are a life form capable of moving on any terrain – they can slide across land, they can swim, they can climb rough surfaces and even sometimes glide in the air. A team of researchers have realized their potential, and started building snake robots, inspired by the movement of sidewinders – a venomous viper species that lives in the deserts of southwestern United States – that allows them to climb slopes, and generally do better as the classic robotic vehicles that have wheels, Science magazine reports.
The idea behind this new type of snake robot was inspired by a failed exploration project in 2011. Howie Choset, a roboticist at the Carnegie Mellon University, has offered his snake robots to a group of archaeologists in search for a solution to explore some man-made caverns by the Red Sea, but the project was a failure: the snake robot fitted with a camera could not climb the sandy slopes of the cavern. Choset has then teamed up with researchers studying how real snakes move, finally coming up with the design for their new, sidewinder-inspired robot snake.
Why sidewinders, you might ask? Well, the reason behind this choice is in the movement of the snake that is actually not slithering, like the other species, but rather wriggling its body perpendicular to the direction of their movement, advancing in an S-shaped wave. This movement type makes the sidewinder a great climber, taking on sandy slopes that would stop a viper with no problems. As it moves, the sidewinder sends a horizontal wave along its body, undulating up and down at the same time. Besides, it adapts its movement to the terrain – on a flat surface only 25% of their bodies is in contact with the ground, while on a 45 degree slope this fraction can increase up to 45%.
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These new all-terrain robots can become a really helpful ally in a variety of scenarios. Their climbing abilities and snake-like movement can be useful when searching for survivors in collapsed buildings, when inspecting the inside of nuclear power plants and even as exploration tools in archaeological expeditions involving out of reach areas. The possibilities are vast.