Carnegie Mellon University’s unnerving snake robot is back in the news today, and not for its unnerving auto-strangle function, which we’ve talked about here previously. The snake-bot — which was designed to be a maneuverable set of eyes and ears in disaster situations, delving into collapsed buildings and other areas that first responders may not be able to reach. Over the weekend, the team behind the project released footage of some of it’s latest tests, where it’s paired with a rescue dog that carries it into the building, then releases it.
Filmed at Texas A&M’s disaster preparedness training ground, the video demonstrates a couple different ways to deploy the rescue bot, including getting a ride on a specially trained German Shepherd.
Not only do snake robot and rescue dog seem to make a good team, but this exercise is just begging for a buddy comedy treatment. A by-the-books robotic snake who always finds his man and a wisecracking dog who plays by his own rules? That would make a bajillion dollars in its first weekend and you know it, Hollywood. You’re welcome. All I ask in return is that you not turn any more cartoons from my childhood into live action movies.
Unless you want to give me some closure on Pirates of Dark Water. I’d be totally down with that.
(via CMUBiorobotics)
- Ok, but seriously, who gives a robot snake an auto-strangle function?
- This thing just keeps getting cooler every year
