Extraordinary Snake Robots

Even though robotics has in most ways in the past focused on copying the form of man in order to attract attention to the field, that has bee quietly changing, with the major emphasis now being to look to nature as a source of ideas and designs.

While there is a place for human-looking robots which can be used in a practical manner, for example, Japan uses robots in hospitals to take care of some basic tasks which need to be done, robotics is now primarily looking to nature and its creatures for inspiration, and they've been finding.

One of those inspirations has resulted in the development of the snake robot, which by itself has numerous uses and a growing number of practical possibilities.

We are now moving far beyond the ubiquitous arm robots found in automobile factories, as well as the cleaning robots used in homes.

Snake robots, or serpentine robots, as some call them, already have enjoyed some significant advancements in abilities, offering up a lot of potential uses for the mechanisms.

Among them are the ability to swim in a pond or small body of water, travel across land, climb a tree or pole and go through a fence, among other skill levels.

The ability to climb and move through small spaces and heavy brush has made them valuable for military uses, but they are also being developed and improved for other types of rescue operations.

Speaking of rescue operations, recent a combined effort by Carnegie Mellon and Ryerson universities has resulted in a new creation called the Canine Assisted Robot Deployment system.

The purpose of the new system is to be able to more quickly employ the search-and-rescue operations.

That is done through the strength of a dog to be able to quickly find people in a dangerous or disastrous event or circumstance, while using the strength of a snake robot to be able to navigate places a dog can't go in order to gain a quicker picture of what is going on. Some snake robots are already used to dispense medicine and related products, so that could be another possibility in getting some care before rescuers even get there.

How the interaction between the dog and snake robot works, is when the dog barks a pack placed around the neck of the dog holding the robot deploys, releasing it to do its job.

Various robotic devices could be used with the dog depending on what the situation calls for.

A recent entry into the snake robot field is one that is stationary with a longer, flexible arm, rather than the mobile types of snake robots that make up most of the field.

OC Robotics in Bristol, is the creator of the new robot device, which includes a self-supporting arm and movable links which have wires running through them for control. The links are able to be fitted with a variety of tools such as lights, cutting tools and cameras.

In this particular case the inspiration is the way a human arm is developed, with the wires being used as tendons of an arm are.

OC Robotics’ Managing Director Rob Buckingham, said in an interviews with CNN, "Basically, we've taken that principle to an extreme and use wire ropes as tendons and all the motors that control the arm are at the base of the robot."

The long-armed robot has already been used in nuclear power plants for safety checks, and is being further developed for specific jobs associated with aircraft fuselages, including inspections, sealing, and drilling.

It's not clear exactly what the uses for a snake robot that climbs a tree or stationary object with a camera mounted on it would be, but it is a little creepy when you see it in the photo and video.

The first obvious use would be for spying out the terrain by the military in specific situations. How about using it to take a look while out hunting? Cool!

As with the majority of snake robots, this would probably have uses in the search and rescue field, complementing the many other robots available.

The climbing snake robot still has work to be done on it, but has a lot of potential once it reaches a more advanced stage. Fetching coconuts anyone?

It won't be too long before snake robots that can swim will be available for a variety of uses.

There has been a prototype for several years, and actually has a number of probable applications beyond the usual military uses.

Any type of underwater job now being done could probably eventually be done by this swimming robot. Things such as cleaning a residential pool, underwater searches for a variety of reasons, welding in dangerous areas, examining underwater cables, among a plethora of other possibilities.

As you'll see in the video, it does present an eerie look when slithering through the pool.

It appears most of the snake robots under development have the ability to add or take away their length, dependent upon what the specific need is at the time.

That seems to be the case with some that are attached to another device, as well as those that can go mobile. That flexibility offers a lot of possibilities for this increasingly practical robot.

Among the large number of robots I've seen, the snake robot may have as many potential practical uses of any robotic design. We'll hear a lot more about these in the future.