Biomimicry

For scientists, who are engaged in robotics, is one of the most problems maintaining equilibrium. Even robots with the latest technology can lose their balance easily by walking. Little children can manage to achieve balance without a problem, yet robots are lacking this ability. One robot that NASA prepared for the planet Mars couldn’t be used at all, for that reason. So that’s why robot experts changed their mind to build a balance-establishing mechanism. Instead of that they looked to a creature that never loses its balance – the snake. Snakes lack a hard spine and limbs and have been created in such a different way, unlike other vertebrates, to enter cracks and crevices. They can glide over rocks, cling to branches and can expand and contract the diameter of their bodies. Snakes’ properties inspired for a new robotic which they called the “snakebot”, developed by NASA’s Ames Research Center. It was designed to be in a stable state of balance, without difficulty.