Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

OmniTread: A serpentine robot

Posted by samzenpus on from the crawl-anywhere dept.

karvind writes "Physorg is running a story about OmniTread: a serpentine robot designed to traverse extremely difficult terrain, such as the rubble of a collapsed building. The 26-pound robot is developed at the University of Michigan U-M College of Engineering. It moves by rolling, log-style, or by lifting its head or tail, inchworm-like, and muscling itself forward. Link to videos. Check out there other robots as well."

13 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Clarification of how this works by MobyDisk · · Score: 4, Funny
    From the article:
    These treads prevent the snakebot from stalling or becoming stuck on rough terrain because, similar to a tire touching a road, t the treads propel the robot forward like a tire touching a road.
    Well, that sure made it clear!
  2. Serpentine Sheldon! by rob_squared · · Score: 2, Funny
    Vince Ricardo: Serpentine Shelly. Serpentine!

    From "The In-Laws," possibly the best Peter Falk movie ever, right next to "The Great Race."

    --
    I don't get it.
  3. Ooh, snake! A snake! by FlyByPC · · Score: 5, Funny

    Badgerbadgerbadger... (C'mon -- *someone* had to say it...)

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
  4. Re:Spheres with tentacles are better by teh+merry+reaper · · Score: 1, Funny

    The design challenges seem insurmountable, though, when you consider that this cutting edge robot is the equivalent of one tentacle. However, robots with tentacles would potentially be quite popular in hentai.

    --
    6x9=42
  5. Re:Spheres with tentacles are better by schwatoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Any sufficiently tentacled sphere is indistinguishable from the Great Cthulhu".

    --
    I have trouble with passwords among other things.
  6. At least we haven't slashdotted the server yet... by carpe_noctem · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...but I'm sure we will soon. Everyone should check out this rad 7min video of this thing in action. Very cool. =)

    --
    "Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
  7. Obligatory bash.org quote by dracken · · Score: 4, Funny

    what does your robot do, sam
    it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls

    -Dracken

  8. Re:Spheres with tentacles are better by Have+Blue · · Score: 3, Funny

    Thanks. Now I'll never look at Koosh balls the same way again.

  9. Slick. Wonder if.. by bunhed · · Score: 5, Funny

    you can program it in python?

  10. Re:cool by Jeremi · · Score: 3, Funny
    Or, perhaps "smart" cars that "know" how to handle obstacles and avoid collisions.


    Great, just what I need... SUVs crawling over my house at night.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  11. Re:At least we haven't slashdotted the server yet. by Kiryat+Malachi · · Score: 1, Funny

    Hah.

    No, you probably won't. COE at Michigan has what is technically termed "phat pipe", and the main web servers are more than capable of handling your piddly little Slashdot attack.

    YOU ARE HITTING THE MAIN WEBSERVERS FOR A 40,000 STUDENT UNIVERSITY WITH 10,000 ENGINEERING STUDENTS. Slashdotting? Unlikely. It'd be like slashdotting Sun.

    --

    ---
    Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
    (I read with sigs off.)
  12. It's pretty simple actually by commodoresloat · · Score: 2, Funny

    It works like a tire touching a road.

  13. Important question by arhar · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does it grow longer the more dots it eats?