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A Modular Snake Robot
StCredZero writes "Researchers at CMU are working on a Modular Snake Robot. A video from this site is up on YouTube. In addition to being able to traverse a wide variety of terrain, the robot can also climb poles, the inside of pipes and conduits, small grooves in walls, and probably more. It can also swim. Many robots can do one of those tasks. This one can do them all. That's quite an accomplishment. This has tremendous potential for the maintenance of fiber optic networks, pipelines, and plumbing in large buildings; and also as a spy device. (I wonder how loud it is?)"
but useful. the telcos would sure like one of those. the us govt. would also see an interest
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Does anyone else smell a "Snakes on a Plane" sequel?
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I, for one....snake robots....etc....overlords.
They are still all Tethered units, which limits their functionality. Of course, they are still in the development stage, so a tethered unit is to be expected.
It will be interesting to see if they can progress beyond tethered to wireless, and finally to fully autonomous units. I would imagine that they will need to get a bit bigger to accommodate the extra electronics needed.
Still, a very cool and potentially VERY useful technology.
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I bet this would be an amazing tool for Police, Swat and the likes. I bet our boys over seas could find some uses for it as well to sneak into places undetected.
Too bad it's probably really loud on hard surfaces and requires a massive cable bundle...
It is an impressive feat though there ae issues of range, woth it being tethered it it's control/power, and also its application for maintenance may be limited to identifying faults depending upon whether suitable tools could be made withoput hampering the movement of the snake.
Issues aside it also looks very cool, if a little creepy when it's climbing uyp that guy's leg.
I ordered one of these for my wife as a gift a little while ago. She gave me the weirdest "freaked out" look.
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Yeah kind of like your expression right now
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Oh, so real snakes aren't scary enough? I have to worry about robot snakes too?
yeah, so it can climb and swim and stuff, but it apparently can't survive a good slashdotting.
The ability to climb poles (and legs) is cute, but apart from that, Xerox PARC had a modular robot in 2000 that could not only be a snake, but could reconfigure itself into a ball or a spider to go faster or to traverse difficult terrain. It was extremely nifty, but like so much else from Xerox PARC, they never capitalized much on it.
-Lars
If you check the video out, it looks cool. Youtube also points out other robot snake videos. It looks like the Japanese already have several types of things like this, they are wireless and apparently have on-board batteries, and seem to do most if not all of what this one does. So, is this really a big advance or just a bad copy-cat of a Japanese version?
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Why does every summary involving robots contain a line in the summary about possible spy usage?
It's like the editors are wearing my tinfoil hat for me...
Nice but ... can it fly ?
From the description of what it can do, it sounds like the answer to a lot of NASA's terrain negotiation problems. Anyone have an idea if this (perhaps on a larger scale) would suit them?
This would be known as a "Jormungand Cluster".
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