Snake robots have a staggering ability to be both graceful and terrifying, but this one developed by CMU Biorobotics is just cute. And it could help save your life someday by slithering through debris and surveying the scene with its cyclopean eye.
Typically, snake robots aren’t that great for delivering video; all that slithering and twisting results in a twisting, turning mess of footage. This model however, is specially designed to be able to get around in a normal snake-like fashion, all while keeping its head stable and pointed in one direction, creating neither a crazy light-show with its flashlight nor a garbled disaster of unwatchable video with its camera.
And though this isn’t a particularly terrifying guy, there is something a little creepy about knowing its can be commanded to watch you intently as it slowly squirms around you. If that ever happens, you just better hope it’s there to help. [IEEE Spectrum]