Snake Robots: Can you watch this without squirming?

you, like many, afraid of snakes?

What about robots? What about snake

robots?

A robot with the advantages of a

snake?! Now here’s an idea that is truly

“outside the box!” This innovation, which

uses nature for inspiration, is just one

incredible example of biomimicry ; a

growing field of science at the

intersection of engineering, design, and

biology.

First, a quick look at where we are going

today…

If you can get over the impulse to recoil

from how snake-like it is, you will see

that the snake robot has some incredible

abilities and applications, about which we

will soon learn more. But first, let’s take a

look at the possibilities for underwater

applications:

What is the potential for the

snake robot?

Consider the many dirty jobs that,

performed by humans, endanger lives, or

jobs that require access to small spaces,

spaces that even conventional robots,

with limbs or wheels, could never

access. Consider the possibility

for assisting in minimally-invasive

surgery, for inspection of power plants, for

aiding in search and rescue efforts, in

archeological digs. When one considers

the many fields of work and disciplines of

study in which we humans are

engaged, and the number of associated

problems we are trying to solve, it

becomes clear that the snake robot has a

lot of potential indeed!

We found a short video from a conference

that explores the reaches of the snake

robot’s potential. Let’s take a little trip

into the future of this extraordinary

technology, with a video courtesy of the

Huffington Post:

If you’d like to read more about the snake

robot story, here’s a link to a darn good

article by Fox News called Snake Robots:

Slithering machines could aid search and

rescue efforts .

Snake robots aren’t just interesting

creepy crawlies, they offer us a chance to

explore our world and enhance our

experience. Inventions like the snake

robot remind us to look to nature in our

search for solutions to our

many problems.

And if you’ve got a little more time for

wonder today, scroll down the page here

to see six articles I can recommend with

threads of connection to this one. In fact,

most of the articles you’ll find on Ever

Widening Circles will demonstrate the

connection and possibility that still exists

in the world, despite what the negative....