Animal-Inspired Bots to the Rescue One of the most dangerous and difficult jobs is searching collapsed buildings after a disaster People who are trapped may only have hours to live Meanwhile rescuers must sift remove and search through piles and piles of unstable debris to find them Luckily a snake might soon be employed to help with the job Volunteers from the Turkish AKUT Search and Rescue Association work to locate victims after a structural disaster 4
A team at Stanford University is developing a search and rescue soft snake robot The flexible robot has a pump at one end and a camera at the other The robot’s mechanism allows the robot to slither and squeeze through tiny spaces to search for and reach survivors It can even deliver supplies while the victim waits to be recovered 6
Everything that exists today in nature is the result of billions of years of evolution tested against the elements and optimized by survival of the fittest Nature is the world’s largest science and engineering lab with 3 8 billion years of experience A snake can get into a tight space by bracing the back portion of its body as it pushes and extends the front 7
