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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."

5 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Spheres with tentacles are better by GAATTC · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From a comment posted below the article: "Arthur C. Clarke had it right --- spheres with tentacles; _that_ is the ultimate in agility and mobility, for robotic design. Plus, such units can easily link together to form a much greater whole, if required --- they could perform nearly *any* engineering, construction, or transportation task."

  2. Ooh, snake! A snake! by FlyByPC · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
  3. Slick. Wonder if.. by bunhed · · Score: 5, Funny

    you can program it in python?

  4. Re:Purposes? by SnowZero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's exactly the kind of thing they want to use this type of robot for. They focus on rubble and similar terrain, because if it isn't hard to traverse, you might as well use wheels. Exploring mines and caves could be useful too, but urban search and rescue is a big topic now. After a disaster, you want to rescue people as fast as possible to save them, but the earlier after a collapse, the more dangerous it is for the rescuers who risk getting trapped themselves. Robots can be sent in immediately becuase you don't care much if you lose them.

  5. Snakebots are very fragile! by Quantum+Jim · · Score: 5, Interesting
    My friend Jer Romeiko builds these kinds of robots for a living. You can download some cool videos of snakebot action at his employer's web site (CMU).

    Snakebots are very fragile. Many times a section would break after a few hours demostration. Jer was working on making each section more modular and easier to build. Apparently the main goal of snakebots for many research labs are for providing demostrations (read: grantbots) and giving new grad students something to do. ;-)

    --
    It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
    - Jerome Klapka Jerome