Slashdot Mirror
Robot Snake Could Aid Search and Rescue Operations
mikejuk writes "The Carnegie Mellon University Biorobotics Lab demonstrates how the snakelike robots can aid search and rescue operations in collapsed buildings. The video appeared more or less at the same time as the current real disaster in Dhaka, Bangladesh where an 8-storey building collapsed, trapping some three thousand people. Bangladesh rescue teams, helped by members of the community, have so far worked with small tools and their bare hands to bring out survivors. Having a snake robot that could provide pictures from within the building would lead to speedier and more effective rescue operations."
Quite a number of people on the Indian subcontinent die every year from cobra strikes. Snakes are an object of horror -- if you're trapped in a pile of rubble, a snake may not be the thing they want to see.
Other than that, I think it's a great idea.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
We'be been building them for the better part of a decade, and stories about them get posted to Slashdot after every major building collapse.
http://www.snakerobots.com/
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
properly construct
Much of the construction process is out of your hands once you and the building contractor have reached an accord. In one of those pervasive occupational instances of irony, the difference between the price you've agreed on and what it actually costs to finish the project is what the contractor makes. Additionally, each subcontractor beneath the general contractor is working a 'bid job' as soon as their feet hit the site... in no way, shape, form, nor circumscription is this a statistically beneficial scenario for the building owner. Sure, there are some honest contractors who will complete a job per submittals and specifications even if they underbid the scope of their work, but I've seen examples of the other type aplenty.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Cue 'hamster rescue' jokes in 3... 2... 1...
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
*First world people* fear snakes, with the bible (Gen 3:1-5) being a significant cause IMHO.
The Bible might be a major cause in highly-religious areas, but not in the rest of the country; it would be extremely unusual out on the US West Coast where I live, for example. (I've never known anyone that took religion *that* seriously; the closest I can think of was a hardcore Irish Catholic great-aunt born in the 1920s that would have been insulted enough to call me an idiot if I even asked whether she found snakes scary due to the Bible.)
In countries where seriously venomous snakes exist, they are venerated a holy animals
We have a few snakes that are venomous enough to be deadly to adults if antivenin isn't administered, and are extremely dangerous for kids or seniors -- for example, the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake has a 10-30% fatality rate. The reason the more dangerous snakes here don't kill very often is because good antivenin has been developed and improvements in roads/vehicles mean it's usually possible to get a human victim treatment in time. AFAIK, everyone I know is afraid of snakes primarily because we were warned about the deadly ones as kids and don't trust our ability to accurately distinguish dangerous kinds from snakes that merely look similar.
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