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Snakebot

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A Gen 2 Snakebot from NASA, demonstrating rearing capabilities.

The Snakebot, also known as a snake robot, is a biomorphic, hyper-redundant robot that resembles a snake. Snake robots come in many shapes and sizes, including the "Anna Konda" developed by SINTEF, a hydraulic fire fighting robot with a length of 3 m[1] and the medical Snakebot developed at Carnegie Mellon University, which is capable of maneuvering around organs inside a human chest cavity.[2] Snakebots have uses similar to those of certain types of soft robots.[3]

Snakebots can vary significantly in size and design. Their small cross-section-to-length ratios allow them to maneuver through tight spaces. Their ability to change shape enables them to traverse varied terrain.[citation needed]

Many snake robots are constructed by chaining together several independent links. This redundancy allows them to continue operating even after parts of their bodies are damaged. Snake robots have several common properties such as high trainability, redundancy, and the ability to completely seal their bodies. This makes snake robots notable for practical applications and as a research topic.[4][5]

A Snakebot differs from a snake-arm robot in that Snakebots are usually self-contained, whereas snake-arm robots typically have mechanics remote from the arm itself, possibly connected to a larger system.[citation needed]

Applications

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Snakebots are specialized robots inspired by the movement of snakes, designed to operate in environments where traditional wheeled or legged robots struggle to reach. They are primarily used in scenarios that require navigating confined, narrow, or irregular spaces.

  1. Search and Rescue: Snakebots are invaluable in search and rescue missions, particularly following natural disasters like earthquakes or building collapses. Their slender, flexible design allows them to move through debris, rubble, and narrow crevices, which are often inaccessible to human rescuers or traditional robots. By integrating cameras, sensors, and communication systems, snakebots can provide live feedback to rescue teams, helping locate trapped individuals, assessing structural stability, and determining the safest rescue approach.
  2. Inspection and Maintenance: These robots are also ideal for inspecting hard-to-reach areas, such as tubes, pipelines, bridges, and other infrastructure elements. Their serpentine movement allows them to slither along narrow or winding passages, which are common in industrial and infrastructure environments. For example, they can navigate water or gas pipelines, identifying leaks, blockages, or structural weaknesses. In bridge inspection, snakebots can access difficult spots under structures, helping detect damage or corrosion, which reduces the need for human inspectors in hazardous conditions.
  3. Medical Applications: In medical technology, miniature versions of snakebots have been developed for endoscopic and minimally invasive procedures. These robotic tools can navigate the human body’s complex and narrow anatomical pathways, providing high precision during surgeries. They enable procedures that involve delicate areas such as the heart, brain, or gastrointestinal tract, thereby reducing recovery time and risks associated with traditional invasive surgery.
  4. Military and Surveillance: Due to their quiet, agile movement, snakebots are being considered for reconnaissance and surveillance tasks in military and defense settings. Their ability to crawl quietly and camouflage within certain terrains makes them useful for missions requiring stealth and precision. Equipped with cameras, microphones, and sensors, they can gather intelligence or assess areas before troops advance, minimizing risk.
  5. Space Exploration: Space agencies are exploring the use of snakebots to navigate extraterrestrial terrains, such as the rocky, uneven surfaces of Mars or the Moon. Unlike traditional rovers, which can become stuck on uneven ground, snakebots can adapt to challenging terrains, slithering over rocks or squeezing into crevices to gather data in places otherwise inaccessible.

By mimicking the unique locomotion of snakes, snakebots offer a versatile solution for tasks across multiple industries, enabling capabilities that traditional robots or human workers find challenging or impossible to accomplish safely.

Locomotion

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Traditional Snakebots move by changing the shape of their body, similar to actual snakes. Many variants have been created that use wheels or treads for movement. There has yet to be any Snakebots that accurately approximate the locomotion of real snakes. However, researchers have produced new movement methods that do not occur in nature.[citation needed]

In Snakebot research, a gait is a periodic mode of locomotion. For example, sidewinding and lateral undulation are both gaits. Snakebot gaits are often designed by investigating period changes to the shape of the robot. For example, a caterpillar moves by changing the shape of its body to match a sinusoidal wave. Similarly, a Snakebot can move by adapting its shape to different periodic functions.[6]

Sidewinder rattlesnakes can ascend sandy slopes by increasing the portion of their bodies in contact with the sand to match the reduced yielding force of the inclined sand, allowing them to ascend the maximum possible sand slope without slip.[7] Snakebots that side-wind can replicate this ascent.[7]

Current research

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Snakebots are currently being researched as a new type of robotic, interplanetary probe by engineers at the NASA Ames Research Center. Software for Snakebots is also being developed by NASA, so that they can learn by experiencing the skills to scale obstacles and remembering the techniques.[8]

Snake robots are also being developed for search and rescue purposes at Carnegie Mellon University's Biorobotics Lab.[9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Pål Liljebäck. "Anna Konda – The fire fighting snake robot | ROBOTNOR". Robotnor.no. Retrieved 2016-05-04.
  2. ^ "Medical Snake Robot | Medical Robotics - Carnegie Mellon University". medrobotics.ri.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-23.
  3. ^ Seeja, G.; Arockia Selvakumar Arockia, Doss; Berlin Hency, V. (8 September 2022). "A Survey on Snake Robot Locomotion". IEEE Access. 10: 112109–112110.
  4. ^ Transeth, Aksel Andreas; Pettersen, Kristin Ytterstad (Dec 2006). "Developments in Snake Robot Modeling and Locomotion". 2006 9th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision. pp. 1–8. doi:10.1109/ICARCV.2006.345142. ISBN 978-1-4244-0341-7. S2CID 2337372.
  5. ^ Liljebäck, P.; Pettersen, K. Y.; Stavdahl, Ø.; Gravdahl, J. T. (2013). Snake Robots - Modelling, Mechatronics, and Control. Advances in Industrial Control. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-2996-7. ISBN 978-1-4471-2995-0.
  6. ^ "Snakebot". www.cs.rochester.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  7. ^ a b Marvi, Hamidreza (2014-10-10). "Sidewinding with minimal slip: Snake and robot ascent of sandy slopes". Science. 346 (6206): 224–229. arXiv:1410.2945. Bibcode:2014Sci...346..224M. doi:10.1126/science.1255718. PMID 25301625. S2CID 23364137. Retrieved 2016-05-04.
  8. ^ "JPL's Snake-Like EELS Slithers Into New Robotics Terrain". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  9. ^ "SnakeBots - Carnegie Mellon University | CMU". www.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
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