‘Snake Monster’ hexapod robot moves like an insect over uneven terrain

Feast your eyes upon the autonomous “Snake Monster,” a walking hexapod robot whose insect-like gait permits it to deftly climb over obstacles and move at a respectable pace. The robot was developed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Biorobotics Laboratory and acquired its strange name because it was built with the same modular actuators used in the Biorobotics Lab’s snake robot project, even if “Bug Monster” is a far more appropriate name. 

What sets Snake Monster apart from the other university-built biorobots featured on the Internet is Snake’s ability to scramble over uneven terrain without appearing like its slogging through molasses. Key in achieving such a balance is the series-elastic actuators used in the joints to allow what the lab describes as “simultaneous position-velocity-torque control, enabling compliant motions using a simple alternating-tripod walking gait.” 

Other projects invented by Biorobotics Lab include a highly articulated medical snake robot used in minimally invasive cardiac surgery, an alternative form of locomotive propulsion for driving snake robot movement, the highly articulated modular snake whose movement is not limited to a predefined terrain (and whose actuators were used in Snake Monster), and more.

It’s also worth noting that Snake Monster is being funded by DARPA as part of their M3 program, an engineering program that strives to create significant improvement in robot mobility and their environmental manipulation. Similarly, M3 seeks to devise innovative approaches to robot manufacturing that will lower costs and fabrication time. Perhaps this means that DARPA will someday developed man-sized insect robots to be used in warfare; hopefully they’ll be capable of firing lasers. 

Source: YouTube, Carnegie Mellon, DARPA