Prototype
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Slitherbots
Thanks to new improvements in joint design, snakelike robots might more easily slither their way into collapsed buildings or toxic waste sites. Mechanical engineer Howie Choset of Carnegie Mellon University uses beveled gears to connect the joint around its circumference rather than at its center; the device’s improved efficiency allows for the use of smaller motors. The result is a robot just five centimeters in diameter that is just as strong as and more maneuverable than today’s best snakebots, which are 15 centimeters wide. Choset recently received $800,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a 10-joint, 1.2-meter-long snake robot. He expects to complete the first prototype this fall. If all goes well, Choset says, within two years his sensor-laden snakebot could be sensing radiation levels at toxic sites or beaming images from within rubble piles.
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