NASA tests snake robots in collaboration with CMU
Why do robots need to have legs?
I’m not a roboticist, nor am I much of an engineer, but every time we see robots in movies, or in pop culture, or even in whatever strange demonstrations Boston Dynamics has for us that definitely isn’t going to become part of the U.S. military (wink wink), robots have legs.
That or they’re giant Roombas. That’s also an option.
But that’s limiting and complicating. Legs require a ton of math, science, and logic that isn’t easy to write. Our brains are good at it, and even then, some of us manage to trip and fall on flat ground. With how much overhead legs cause, there’s a push to consider other options in movement and travel.
What about snakes?
The first benefit to the snake form is modularity. By splitting the snake into many small parts, none of which are critical to the rest, it means that injuries and malfunctions go from devastating (try to walk with your foot broken) to manageable . A snake robot could, theoretically, survive a huge chunk of its body going out of order, because the rest of it can easily pick up the slack.
Additionally, a snake-like robot will be a lot better at navigating strange environments and autonomously crawling into crevices and difficult-to-reach areas.
All this backdrop is in service of the newest NASA project, made in conjunction with the Jet Propulsion Lab, Carnegie Mellon, and other universities: The Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS).
This project will send a snake-like robot to one of Saturn’s moons to explore the glaciers and ice and to look for signs of life, organics, or other telling chemicals.
A significant amount of the robot’s controls and controlling system came directly from Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, due to the Institute’s research in controls, autonomy, and many of the programs’ experts in robotic control. The entire robot is about 220 pounds, which is light considering the capabilities and the fully autonomous nature of the beast. With a large time delay between Earth and Saturn, the EELS has to be able to adapt to the environment independently of human handlers.
