Inspired by the Sandfish Lizard, Georgia Tech is venturing down a technology imitates life path with its new worm robot. By copying the head shape of the Sandfish Lizard, assisatant professor Daniel Goldman and his team, have added a wedge shape to the front of a seven segment, servo actuated, worm/snake like robot. Doing so has shown that the angle of the head will lead to the bot being able to sink and rise in a medium. A wedge shape, 155 degrees to the zero plane, made the bot sink. Raising that same shape greater than 7 degrees off the horizon plane made it rise. “The ability to control the vertical position of the robot by modulating its head inclination opens up avenues for further research into developing robots more capable of maneuvering in complex environments, like debris-filled areas produced by an earthquake or landslide," says Goldman. The next step is testing the bots maneuverability in materials that could be found in disaster areas. More is better.
Eavesdropper
