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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Battlefield Robot Is a Snake

Israeli defense researchers are working on a robot snake that can sneak through cracks and into buildings to send back sound and video of enemy movements — or even plant explosives.
That's according to the Jerusalem Post, which cites a news report from Israel's Channel 2.
A video clip shows the six-foot-long robot, covered in camouflage, winding its way through rocks and tree stumps, its "head" a flat camera lens ringed by LED lights.
The "snake" can also prop up its front sections vertically to peer over obstacles.
It's remote-controlled by a soldier, who uses a laptop both to guide the robot and to see and hear what it's feeding back. The Israel Defense Forces plan to equip combat units with search-and-surveillance models, which could also be useful to find survivors trapped within collapsed buildings.
Future models might be used to plant bombs in enemy facilities.



There's little that humans fear more in the natural world than snakes. The phobia is ingrained in our DNA, some scientists think, and may have driven the evolution of our keen eyesight.
So how appropriate that a battlefield spy robot would be designed to look and slither like a snake. The 2-foot robot, with a camera at its snout, is covered in a snake "skin" and was made after researchers studied how real snakes move.
You'd have to be on the same team to love this bot (and soldiers do love their robots).
Other engineers have designed snake-like robots because they can get into tight corners to do work or inspect things. Even NASA has dabbled in Snakebots.


According to sources,the snake is also potentially able to explode on reaching a suitable target, after which it isn't good for much any more.

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