Snakebot

Last updated
A Gen 2 Snakebot from NASA, demonstrating rearing capabilities. SnakeBot3.jpg
A Gen 2 Snakebot from NASA, demonstrating rearing capabilities.

A 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 metres [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]

Contents

Snakebots can vary significantly in size and design. Their small cross-section-to-length ratios allow them to maneuver through tight spaces, while their ability to change shape enables them to traverse varied terrain. [4]

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. These properties make snake robots notable for practical applications and as a research topic. [5] [6]

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

Snakebots are being considered for the following applications:

  1. Search and Rescue: Snakebots may be used 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.[ citation needed ]
  2. Inspection and Maintenance: These robots can also be used 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. [ citation needed ]
  4. Military and Surveillance: Due to their quiet, agile movement, Snakebots are being considered for reconnaissance and surveillance tasks in military and defense settings[ citation needed ]. 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 [7] [8] . 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 can 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

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. Sidewinding and lateral undulation are both examples of 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. [9]

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. [10] Snakebots that side-wind can replicate this ascent. [10]

Current research

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. [11]

Snake robots are also being developed for search and rescue purposes at Carnegie Mellon University's Biorobotics Lab. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quadrupedalism</span> Form of locomotion using four limbs

Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where animals have four legs that are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four legs is said to be a quadruped. Quadruped animals are found among both vertebrates and invertebrates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raj Reddy</span> Indian-American computer scientist (born 1937)

Dabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy is an Indian-American computer scientist and a winner of the Turing Award. He is one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence and has served on the faculty of Stanford and Carnegie Mellon for over 50 years. He was the founding director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He was instrumental in helping to create Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies in India, to cater to the educational needs of the low-income, gifted, rural youth. He was the founding chairman of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. He is the first person of Asian origin to receive the Turing Award, in 1994, known as the Nobel Prize of Computer Science, for his work in the field of artificial intelligence.

<i>Crotalus cerastes</i> Species of snake

Crotalus cerastes, known as the sidewinder, horned rattlesnake or sidewinder rattlesnake, is a pit viper species belonging to the genus Crotalus, and is found in the desert regions of the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Like all other pit vipers, it is venomous. Three subspecies are currently recognized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rectilinear locomotion</span> Mode of locomotion associated with snakes

Rectilinear locomotion or rectilinear progression is a mode of locomotion most often associated with snakes. In particular, it is associated with heavy-bodied species such as terrestrial African adders, pythons and boas; however, most snakes are capable of it. It is one of at least five forms of locomotion used by snakes, the others being lateral undulation, sidewinding, concertina movement, and slide-pushing. Unlike all other modes of snake locomotion, which include the snake bending its body, the snake flexes its body only when turning in rectilinear locomotion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sidewinding</span> Particular kind of snake locomotion

Sidewinding is a type of locomotion unique to snakes, used to move across loose or slippery substrates. It is most often used by the Saharan horned viper, Cerastes cerastes, the Mojave sidewinder rattlesnake, Crotalus cerastes, and the Namib desert sidewinding adder, Bitis peringueyi, to move across loose desert sands, and also by Homalopsine snakes in Southeast Asia to move across tidal mud flats. Any number of caenophidian snakes can be induced to sidewind on smooth surfaces, though the difficulty in getting them to do so and their proficiency at it vary greatly.

Robot locomotion is the collective name for the various methods that robots use to transport themselves from place to place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Whittaker</span> American robotisict

William L. "Red" Whittaker is an American roboticist and research professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. He led Tartan Racing to its first-place victory in the DARPA Grand Challenge (2007) Urban Challenge and brought Carnegie Mellon University the two million dollar prize. Previously, Whittaker also competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge, placing second and third place simultaneously in the Grand Challenge Races.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrestrial locomotion</span> Ability of animals to travel on land

Terrestrial locomotion has evolved as animals adapted from aquatic to terrestrial environments. Locomotion on land raises different problems than that in water, with reduced friction being replaced by the increased effects of gravity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballbot</span> Mobile robot design

A ball balancing robot also known as a ballbot is a dynamically-stable mobile robot designed to balance on a single spherical wheel. Through its single contact point with the ground, a ballbot is omnidirectional and thus exceptionally agile, maneuverable and organic in motion compared to other ground vehicles. Its dynamic stability enables improved navigability in narrow, crowded and dynamic environments. The ballbot works on the same principle as that of an inverted pendulum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexapod (robotics)</span> Type of robot

A six-legged walking robot should not be confused with a Stewart platform, a kind of parallel manipulator used in robotics applications.

Modular self-reconfiguring robotic systems or self-reconfigurable modular robots are autonomous kinematic machines with variable morphology. Beyond conventional actuation, sensing and control typically found in fixed-morphology robots, self-reconfiguring robots are also able to deliberately change their own shape by rearranging the connectivity of their parts, in order to adapt to new circumstances, perform new tasks, or recover from damage.

A snake-arm robot is a slender hyper-redundant manipulator. The high number of degrees of freedom allows the arm to “snake” along a path or around an obstacle – hence the name “snake-arm”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legged robot</span> Type of mobile robot

Legged robots are a type of mobile robot which use articulated limbs, such as leg mechanisms, to provide locomotion. They are more versatile than wheeled robots and can traverse many different terrains, though these advantages require increased complexity and power consumption. Legged robots often imitate legged animals, such as humans or insects, in an example of biomimicry.

Howie Choset is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. His research includes snakebots, or robots designed in a segmented fashion to mimic snake-like actuation and motion, demining, and coverage. His snake robots have also been used in surgical applications for diagnosis and tumor removal; nuclear power plant inspection, archaeological excavations, manufacturing applications and understanding biological behaviors of a variety of animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of robotics</span> List of definitions of terms and concepts commonly used in the study of robotics

Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots. Robotics is related to the sciences of electronics, engineering, mechanics, and software.

Matthew Thomas Mason is an American roboticist and the former Director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Mason is a researcher in the area of robotic manipulation, and is the author of two highly cited textbooks in the field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Undulatory locomotion</span> Wave-like animal movement method

Undulatory locomotion is the type of motion characterized by wave-like movement patterns that act to propel an animal forward. Examples of this type of gait include crawling in snakes, or swimming in the lamprey. Although this is typically the type of gait utilized by limbless animals, some creatures with limbs, such as the salamander, forgo use of their legs in certain environments and exhibit undulatory locomotion. In robotics this movement strategy is studied in order to create novel robotic devices capable of traversing a variety of environments.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to robotics:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bio-inspired robotics</span>

Bio-inspired robotic locomotion is a subcategory of bio-inspired design. It is about learning concepts from nature and applying them to the design of real-world engineered systems. More specifically, this field is about making robots that are inspired by biological systems, including Biomimicry. Biomimicry is copying from nature while bio-inspired design is learning from nature and making a mechanism that is simpler and more effective than the system observed in nature. Biomimicry has led to the development of a different branch of robotics called soft robotics. The biological systems have been optimized for specific tasks according to their habitat. However, they are multifunctional and are not designed for only one specific functionality. Bio-inspired robotics is about studying biological systems, and looking for the mechanisms that may solve a problem in the engineering field. The designer should then try to simplify and enhance that mechanism for the specific task of interest. Bio-inspired roboticists are usually interested in biosensors, bioactuators, or biomaterials. Most of the robots have some type of locomotion system. Thus, in this article different modes of animal locomotion and few examples of the corresponding bio-inspired robots are introduced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vandi Verma</span> Roboticist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and driver of the Mars rovers

Vandana "Vandi" Verma is a space roboticist and chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, known for driving the Mars rovers, notably Curiosity and Perseverance, using software including PLEXIL programming technology that she co-wrote and developed.

References

  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. Bibcode:2022IEEEA..10k2100S. doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3215162 .
  4. ↑ Liu, Jindong; Tong, Yuchuang; Liu, Jinguo (18 April 2021). "Review of snake robots in constrained environments". Robotics and Autonomous Systems. 141. ISSN   0921-8890 – via Elsevier.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ 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.
  7. ↑ "JPL's Snake-Like EELS Slithers Into New Robotics Terrain". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Retrieved 2024-11-10.
  8. ↑ McDonald, Bob (May 12, 2023). "NASA engineers hope to send a robot snake to explore Saturn's icy moon Enceladus". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved November 9, 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ↑ "Snakebot". www.cs.rochester.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  10. 1 2 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.
  11. ↑ "JPL's Snake-Like EELS Slithers Into New Robotics Terrain". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  12. ↑ "SnakeBots - Carnegie Mellon University | CMU". www.cmu.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.