It must be ‘let’s creep out the populace’s month’ over at MIT, because, in addition to revealing the school’s untethered robot cheetah today, there’s another video showing the latest progress on its development of a highly articulated robot snake. Which is cool, because everyone loves snakes, right? Especially when they’re extra unstoppable in robot form.
On the practical side of things, a robot snake has a lot of distinct advantages over a wheeled or even humanoid automaton. Like a snake it can handle almost any uneven terrain, and is able to slip into cramp and tight areas with ease. Infiltrating an enemy’s fortress is easy when you can make your way in Shawshank-style through the sewer pipes. And finding survivors in the rubble of a disaster is far safer for a robot snake that’s able to move through cracks and crevices with minimal risk of causing further collapse. How happy those survivors will be be to see their creepy robo rescuer, on the other hand, is anyone’s guess.