Snakes Improve Search-and-Rescue Robots
By observing 20 different species of snakes at Zoo Atlanta, Georgia Tech has built a new search-and-rescue robot designed to use less energy. The project is overseen by David Hu, an assistant professor in the Schools of Mechanical Engineering and Biology, and Hamid Marvi, a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. candidate.
Transcript
00:00:05 some people think they're fascinating While others think they're scary Georgia Tech thinks that snakes can help build better robots Hamid Marvy a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering has studied 20 different species at Zoo Atlanta watching and videotaping how snakes move whether slithering through confined spaces or climbing varying slopes the reptiles use very little
00:00:26 energy Marvy is using those findings to build better search and rescue robots robots that are available um currently have a lot of problems in terms in terms of power management so they need a lot of power their Motors always have the overheating problem because they require a lot of power so our goal is to study animal Locomotion snake Locomotion and see how snake can manage its limited
00:00:55 amount of energy to go long distances crawl through narrow crevices climb up the Hillel and so forth some snakes like this deros boa prefer to use rectal linear Locomotion which features a muscular traveling wave from head to tail the snake lifts its vental scales to pull its body forward the movement is very efficient and allows the animal to travel without bending its
00:01:20 [Music] body that's why Marvy built scaly bot 2 an eight motor robot that mimics rectal linear Locomotion two of those Motors are specifically designed designed to control the angle of its scales to harness the power of friction using that Clos Loop control system as soon as there is a change in the frictional properties of the surface
00:01:42 or in the slope that the robot is climbing and due to that change the robot slides down the hill it can automatically adjust the skills to provide required friction to avoid the sliding backboard that's useful because of the complex and inconsistent terrains covered by search and rescue robots are you know highly maligned creatures I really like the idea that here's a snake
00:02:04 that is uh uh offering something to people and that helps helps me present to the to the public that uh snakes really do have something to offer