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Robotic snakes pose great possibilities to get into areas that human shaped robots can't reach. They can use all the slithering, sidewinder and coiled climbing modes of locomotion that a snake uses. Problem is these methods of moving are pretty slow.
The idea is to have them turn into a wheel and
roll very quickly like Sonic the Hedgehog or those Star Wars rolling robots.
To make a snake roll would be a lot harder because it has no limbs to get it started with, but this would be a way to ovecome the problem of slow snake robots.
Has this aready been proposed? I would think so but I couldn't find anything. Only stuff about the hoax of a real snake that does this.
The answer to your questions...
I_20Left_20My_20Dur...n_20San_20Francisco ...is not in this link, but there's some ideas in the neighborhood of yours in the category [normzone, Sep 10 2014]
Non rolling snakebot
http://www.youtube....watch?v=cJuNe50uuzk [doctorremulac3, Sep 11 2014]
(??) Very primative snakebot
http://www.youtube....watch?v=v6W-sEpJEqY [doctorremulac3, Sep 11 2014]
Troller. Self rolling robot.
https://www.kicksta...ational-hobby-robot [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 11 2014]
Robot-loving snake
http://www.ricjr.or...eptile-ocd_med.jpeg "swallowing its tail" [4and20, Sep 15 2014]
For exploration on mars
http://www.scienced...09/130916091021.htm [doctorremulac3, Sep 28 2014]
Snakebot will leap tall buildings
http://www.youtube....watch?v=6b4ZZQkcNEo [doctorremulac3, Sep 28 2014]
How Snakebot will arrest people in its law enforcement embodiment 1:05
http://www.youtube....watch?v=oFn3P71DUBo WARNING: This shows a live mouse getting killed by a snake so don't watch if you're squeamish please. [doctorremulac3, Sep 28 2014]
Rolling Snake Robot
https://www.youtube...watch?v=JVVysO76f8Y It's rolling the wrong way to be a robotic hoop snake, but It Rolls! [goldbb, Nov 28 2017]
[link]
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I like. It needn't be difficult to get started, if the
snake has enough flexibility. |
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For instance: the snake need not form a simple 2-
dimensional hoop. It could form a zig-zaggy hoop, to
give it width. This would be fairly stable against
falling. It could then start rolling, and as it picked up
speed it could open out the zig-zag to make a larger
diameter for higher speed. |
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Wow, that's pretty clever. So basically you have kind of a wide tire that gets narrower as it speeds up. |
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How about this? You do it like a spring. |
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So at slow speed it's got ten 6" diameter coils, as it speeds up it widens into 5 12" coils (or whatever) and eventually it's a 60" loop. |
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And propulsion is no problem either. If you imagine a
wheel-rim which is slightly flattened at the bottom,
and then the rearmost part of the flat bit bulges out
a little - the wheel will roll forward. I think people
have tried this as a means of propelling wheels, but
not for a "snakebot" like this. |
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I would think it might actually be a pretty efficient
method of moving. You don't have the friction you
have in a bike or engine where you have gears, chains
a wheel hub etc. You just push the ground every time
you roll around. |
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" imagine a wheel-rim which is slightly flattened at the bottom, and then the rearmost part of the flat bit bulges out a little - the wheel will roll forward. I think people have tried" |
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So similar to a motorcycle tire except front to back instead of side to side. |
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Uh, well, maybe sort of. Perhaps more like an eel
but with a different shape. |
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//Has this been proposed somewhere else ?// |
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It's no problem for a snake to grab itself by the tail and locomotize across most terrain as a well-flattened ellipse/rounded-semicircle: just a matter of proper muscle coordination and balance. |
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While practiced by the young of several species, adults rarely engage because it makes them more noticeable to predators. |
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They're called "hoop snakes". |
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Nifty. Hoopsnakes and jackalopes aside, this is a self rolling wheel. I wonder if you could build one of these with a Mindstorm kit? |
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I imagine if you could have lateral protrusions which is not come in contact with the ground, you could steer by having these move out or pull on, to adjust the center of gravity. The wheel should tip and so turn towards the side sticking out. |
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The reason I like the snakebot idea so much is it really is the perfect configuration for a general purpose utility robot. Picture more of a magic rope than a snake. Once it gets anywhere it needs to, it can do anything that needs to be done. The only reason real snakes can't help around the house is because they're stupid, it's not because the snake shape can't do just about anything a person can do. |
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Snakebot could roll to the refrigerator, open the door, reach in and grab a beer and bring it back to you. It could clean the house being able to reach into any corner even to the ceiling to dust and polish lamps. Hey, no reason you could'nt put hands on each end. |
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And if the rolling thing worked, there's no robot that could roll to a crime scene at 60 miles per hour then slip through the mail slot to shoot the bad guys robbing a house. Don't want to shoot them? No prob, no handcuffs needed. Ever see a boa take down an animal? Snakebot would be THE hot law enforcement robot of the late 21st century. |
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I'm devoting my life to snakebot. All hail snakebot! (And my plans for world domination once I'm successful. Wait... did I write that or just think it?) |
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Very cool. Here's a [link] to a fellow who's working on it. He's trying to fund it through kickstarter. |
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It is a cool idea, but I wonder if I'd want to open that beer
straight after the Snakebot rolled to me from the fridge. |
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By the way, no reason you couldn't put little wheels
on
these for added mobility options. You could even put
extendable contra-rotating propellers on it to make
these things shoot through water. You don't
necessarily need it to move like a snake all the time,
just in situations when that's the best way for it to
move. |
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Yes I did. It's quite simply one of the most amazing
things I've ever seen in my life. |
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When I see stuff like this I feel like robots are going
to more fundamentally change the human condition
than any other technological development. Maybe
agriculture is on par with it but that's about it.
Electricity, the wheel? Feh. |
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You do know that because of robots work will be
optional some day in the very near future right? I'd be
VERY surprised if in a thousand years people had to
go do something every day. (that is when I got over
the surprise of still being alive to be surprised about
anything) You can debate if not
having to do anything to survive is a
good or bad, I assume some people will do interesting
stuff with their new free time and others will sit
around like cattle, but that day is coming. |
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Like Adam Carolla says, children aren't the future like
the Whitney Houston song says, it's robots. |
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Here's the 3 things all humans need to know about
the future: |
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1: Robots
2: Robots
3: Robots |
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I also predict that there will only be two kinds of
robots: a) those shaped like snakes and b) those not
shaped like snakes. (Though I'm not 100% sure about
the first one) |
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// I would think it might actually be a pretty
efficient method of moving. You don't have the
friction you have in a bike or engine where you
have gears, chains a wheel hub etc. You just push
the ground every time you roll around. // |
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It will be seriously difficult to make the mechanism
that causes flexing between segments of a snake
to be more efficient than gears, chains, and wheel
hubs. |
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The one area were I could see some efficiency
improvement is in the rolling resistance. If the
robot can intelligently control the contact area to
exactly match the contour of the surface it is
rolling on, compression of the tread and/or driving
surface will be minimized. That ought to have a
significant improvement in rolling resistance on
soft ground, and maybe a little improvement on
pavement as well. |
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And of course this idea is a big improvement if you
are comparing to other forms of snake movement,
so [+], even if it is partially baked. |
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I can give you one number: |
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Percentage of people involved with gathering and/or
preparation of food: |
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Now: 2% to grow it, 15% total by the time it gets
eaten. (At least in America) |
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With all due regard to chefs and food industry
workers everywhere, there's no reason we can't knock
that number down to almost zero in the very near
future. |
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As far as education, seems to me like big buildings
with columns (colleges) are kind of an anachronism in
the data-telecom age. I see people logging into their
personalized education cyber entity at the age of
like, 2 weeks, and being walked through their
education at their own pace through adulthood. |
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No reason why you can't have an 11 year old who
actually DOES know everything, as opposed to just
thinking they do. (As a father I know first hand about
the phenomena of omniscient pre-teens.) |
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I'm not sure if there'll even be a question of who gets
what / who pays what if there's an abundance of
everything for everybody. Maybe those old battle
lines between producers, consumers, workers even
rich or poor will get blurry or be re-drawn in ways we
could only guess at if robots are doing everything. |
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As technology affords more and more people the
things that only a king could afford once upon a time,
where's the want that causes civil unrest and friction?
Who cares what the corporate tax rate is if nobody
has to work? At some point doesn't the previously
very useful invention of
money become a big waste of time to use? |
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I'm sure we'll still find stuff to fight over being a very
creative species, but food, durable goods, housing
etc are just going to go down in price as robots do
everything. As we leave the oil age, robots will be
there to tend the currently un-financially viable
renewable energy resources like solar and the only
issue will be not wiping each other out with nukes or
the even more scary weapon of self replicating,
autonomous-targeting nano-killbots. |
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Or jumbo killbots, take your pick. They'll both wreck
your day. |
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What we actually need, for so many reasons, is fewer
people. |
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Snakebot will also jump. (See link to jumping robot)
It coils up, aims and extends. |
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So let's look at snakebot locomotion vs humanoid: |
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Humanoid: up stairs: check -
Snakebot: up stairs: check |
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Humanoid: Leaps tall buildings: no -
Snakebot: Leaps tall buildings: check |
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Humanoid: Slithers through holes: no -
Snakebot: Slithers through holes: check |
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Humanoid: Turns into a wheel and rolls 60 mph: no -
Snakebot: Turns into a wheel and rolls 60 mph: check |
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Humanoid: Easily climbs up poles/pipes etc: no -
Snakebot: Easily climbs up poles/pipes etc: check |
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Humanoid: Easily conceals itself for surveillance
purposes: no -
Snakebot: Easily conceals itself for surveillance
purposes: check (the low profile of a snake shape can
fit behind pipes, posts, along ledges of buildings,
parapets, in holes etc. |
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Additionally, in it's armed embodiment, it can have a
short barreled firearm at the tip that can align with
other segments to form a long barreled firearm for
more accurate long range shots. So it can slither into
a room and shoot the bad guys at short range, or
morph into a barrel of several feet to form a sniper
rifle. |
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And again, for law enforcement, how are you going
to get a humanoid robot's hands to grab a flailing
perp's wrists? Snakebot wraps around the body, then
wraps around the legs, then the arms. When
Snakebot makes the arrest, the bad guys get got.
(see link but be warned, it shows a snake grabbing a
mouse so it's not for sensitive eyes please) |
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By the way, another configuration I see is it standing up
rolling around with wheels on it's base where it's not always
under foot so you can trip on it but more like a walking
upright human. This would be the standard travel
configuration among people, in crowded airports or malls,
neighborhood patrols etc. |
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As re robots I love the ones that wash my clothes and my dishes. Those are my favorites. |
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As re snakebot - in the near future movie version after the coolness of snakebot is fully manifest, there could be the counter snakebots. Big snakebot slips into the building and is assailed by a swarm of wormbots, one of which gets between the joints of snakebot and detonates, cutting it in half. |
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Maybe later on the head of snakebot could still save the day, like Bishop in Aliens. |
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You've got the job of head screenwriter at Remucon
International, Snakebot PR department. |
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We're a small company at this point with not even 1
employee, but we've got big ambitions. |
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The snakebot could deploy nematodebots which counterstrike agaisnt the wormbots. |
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You dont need wheels. If the straight-line snake coils into an open spiral like a slinky with a lot of space between turns, it could gain speed rolling and reduce the number of turns until it was a hoop. At its maximum radius this thing could really move. Scary. |
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Scary yes, but dang do I want one. |
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