Mimicking Nature for Next-Gen Rescue Robots | The Curiosity Files #1

Curiosity Files is a video series where we dive into fascinating and innovative work taking place at Georgia Tech. The research in this series highlights some of the more curiosity-driven projects at Georgia Tech that sparks our imaginations of our viewers.
In this episode, we take a look at the development of robotics mimicking the movement of worms.
Worms and snakes seem to wiggle their way across varying environments without needing to learn the terrain. In more complex landscapes, they move even faster, using obstacles to propel themselves forward like a person pulling themselves up a ladder. To determine if this passive control hypothesis was correct, a team of roboticists, physicists, and engineers developed a limbless robot. This robot helped them better understand the biology that makes worms and snakes so agile. The result is a robot that could be vital for missions in which humans and wheeled robots are limited, such as search and rescue, industrial maintenance, and planetary exploration.