This Robot Snake Means No Harm, Really

(whimsical music)

[Narrator] Afraid of snakes?

Afraid of robots?

Then do I have a treat for you.

This is Carnegie Mellon's robot snake.

It's equal parts fascinating, and unsettlingly lifelike.

(computer processing sounds)

It can constrict your leg and take pictures of you.

It can also undulate.

These robots are basically composed

of about sixteen different motors or actuators,

servo motors.

And how they're actually arranged

allows us to take on these three dimensional shapes

which, amongst other things, allows me to do things

like side-wind.

So, you can actually see the robot here is

moving a lot like desert dwelling side-winding snakes.

We actually have a real-time feed which is showing

us a gravity aligned picture

from what the snake is actually seeing.

We can also turn the lights on and be able to actually

see in very, very dark spaces.

[Narrator] One day that might make robot snakes

invaluable tools for search and rescue

in collapsed buildings.

Still, for such an impressive robot,

it needs a human to steer it around.

But this is the next generation.

A smarter breed of robot snake.

It's made out of a special kind of actuator

that can feel forces placed on it.

The operator just tells it to turn around

when it reaches the end of this board.

The snake does the steering itself.

It's always trying to minimize

how hard its body is pressing against the pegs,

right, because what it really needs to do

is weave through the pegs.

It can't necessarily tell exactly where the

points of contact are, but it can sense, you know

the large forces that are building up on its body,

and it has some sense of knowing that's bad,

is basically the programming goes into it.

[Narrator] That gives the robot autonomy

to make its own decisions.

Weirdly enough, these snake robots

have their origins in the factory.

(machinery sounds)

Two decades ago, researches were looking

to improve upon robotic arms,

so they turned to biology for inspiration.

To be clear, they never set out

to copy a snake's body.

This is bio-inspiration, not duplication.

So now we have these robots that

can not only move and looks like biology,

but it can feel

just like a biological system may.

So like, when you're walking through the woods,

you're not planning every possible footstep.

Your feet are sort of feeling their way as you go along.

[Narrator] Now that sense of force is making its way

back into manufacturing arms,

which today can stop immediately

if they make contact with a human.

We started with the factory, we went outside,

we then realized we gotta look at biology.

We didn't really look at biology carefully enough,

so we developed the right actuator that can feel force,

and at that point we started developing

all sorts of incredible systems,

and we brought that back to the factory,

where we're now using these biologically

inspired ideas to perform assembly.

[Narrator] Welcome to the age of the collaborative robot.

The machines aren't just going to

steal all of our jobs.

Sometimes we'll actually work along side them,

and now that they can feel,

they won't accidentally kill us.

Take for example that you're carrying a

very large object.

Robot has one side,

person has the other side.

The person tugs a little bit,

the robot feels the tug

and it knows to go that way.

[Narrator] And so the snakes have taught

the machines a thing or two about how to feel.

Now let's just hope the snakes

don't teach them how to bite.

(whimsical music)