Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Oregon State University and Atlanta Zoo have found that sidewinder snakes improve their capability of climbing sandy slopes by increasing the amount of body area in contact with the surface they are climbing.

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The principles used by the reptiles to ascend sand dunes were tested as part of the study using a modular snake robot built at Carnegie Mellon. Prior to the study, the robotic snake could use one principle of sidewinding motion to move across flat surfaces, but was incapable of ascending an inclined surface covered in sand that the real animals could climb. In a real-world application of the technology, such as an archaeological mission in caves found in the Red Sea, the sandy slopes proved to be a challenge to the device.

When the robot was programmed with a special wave motion found in sidewinders, however, the machine became capable of going up inclines that had been previously unscalable.

"Our initial idea was to use the robot as a physical model to learn what the snakes experienced," said Daniel Goldman, an associate professor in Georgia Tech's School of Physics. "By studying the animal and the physical model simultaneously, we learned important general principles that allowed us to not only understand the animal, but also to improve the robot."

The study demonstrated that both vertical and horizontal motions had to be comprehended and then recreated by the robot for it to be used in climbing sandy inclines.

Howie Choset, a professor of robotics at Carnegie Melon, said that the motion was similar to that of a tank's: a revolving tread surrounds an elliptical cylinder.

"As the tread circulates around the cylinder, it is constantly placing itself down in front of the direction of motion and picking itself up in the back," Choset added. " The snake lifts some body segments while others remain on the ground, and as the slope increases, the cross section of the cylinder flattens.

TagsRobotics, Snake-like robot, Sidewinder snakes, Robotic locomotion, Locomotion, movement