We’ve been pretty harsh on Carnegie Mellon University’s artificial snake, which, admittedly, is an impressive piece of robotic engineering. But seeing it randomly writhe around while it tries to make its way across the floor and over obstacles will never not be unsettling.
In its latest stunt the robot snake is used to explore a collapsed, pancaked building and search for survivors. Without legs or wheels the robot can easily flip and flop over any kind of uneven terrain, and as is demonstrated in this clip, it can be automatically deployed by a rescue dog into spaces the animal can’t fit. But what’s even more impressive is that Texas A&M University apparently has an entire fake destroyed town called Disaster City for conducting tests just like these.