- About the Center - Team RIM - Innovation and Industry Rescue
robots that mimic snake movement Hamid Marvi, a graduate of
mechanical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in
Atlanta, is taking a closer look at a snake’s use of friction in
order to create more effective ‘rescue’ robot designs. Without
friction, snakes find it difficult to move efficiently. However,
causing this friction is also the main source of energy loss
that snakes cope with, and so scales have to perform two types
of task — create enough friction to allow movement, but also to
perform efficiently in order to conserve valuable energy
resources. As such, snakes will actively adjust their levels of
friction by altering the angles between skin and surface —
giving them as much friction as they require without losing
excess energy. This kind of movement also allows the snake to
cling on to various surfaces efficiently — and that kind of
ability for robots designed to assist in rescue operations would
certainly be a useful featur