New York: Inspired by how snakes move, engineers have created a robot that can stably climb large steps, an advance that may lead to better search and rescue robots that can successfully navigate treacherous terrain.
The robot climbed steps as high as 38 per cent of its body length with a nearly perfect success rate. “We look to these creepy creatures for movement inspiration because they’re already so adept at stably scaling obstacles in their day-to-day lives. Hopefully our robot can learn how to bob and weave across surfaces just like snakes,” said study co-author Chen Li from The Johns Hopkins University. Researcherssaid the robot snake, at first, had difficulty staying stable on large steps and often wobbled and flipped over or got stuck on the steps.
