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GEEKS growing bored with Sony鈥檚 robotic dogs could one day replace their
motorised mutts with another high-tech toy: a robotic snake that moves just like
the real thing. The technology could also be used to create robots capable of
handling the toughest terrain鈥攑erhaps even on other planets.

Gavin Miller, an animator in Palo Alto, California, has built the most
lifelike robotic snakes yet created, in his garage. He has managed to reproduce
both the slithering and the sidewinding motions used by the reptiles.

Previous attempts to make robotic snakes have usually involved copying the
way a caterpillar inches along by arching its body upwards, rather than a
snake鈥檚 slither. 鈥淭his is by far the most realistic and sophisticated [robotic]
snake that I have seen,鈥� says Gary Haith, a robotics engineer at NASA鈥檚 Ames
Research Center, who is designing ways to explore rough extraterrestrial
terrains.

Miller originally started trying to reproduce snakes鈥� movements for an
animated film. Having developed an algorithm that worked in the virtual world,
he decided to see if it would work in the real world, too. Eventually, he says,
he would like to build a robot snake capable of climbing trees.

Miller hopes to sell his design to toy makers. He believes he has cracked the
problem that has kept toy makers away: the cost. His new design could sell for
only a few hundred dollars.

But it鈥檚 not just about toys. Biomimetics, as copying ideas from nature is
called, could push the boundaries of robotics. 鈥淭he hope is if we have
biologically inspired robots, they would be able to go over a wide variety of
terrain,鈥� he says.

Although there is a wheel under each segment of Miller鈥檚 snakes, much like
those on a Rollerblade, they are not motorised, says Miller. Instead they are
free running and merely reduce friction with the ground. Haith says it鈥檚 much
harder to make snakes move naturally without wheels.

Miller鈥檚 latest model, a 7-kilogram polycarbonate and brass beast, has over
30 segments. The segments are connected by a central spine and each have a pair
of electrical servomotors. These push the connecting rods that make the snake鈥檚
segments bend (see Diagram).

A motion starts at the robot鈥檚 head. When the servos are activated,
neighbouring segments bend in relation to each other and a sideways force is
exerted on the wheels. 鈥淭hese lateral forces on the wheels cause it to move
along,鈥� Miller explains. The motors in the next segment are then activated, and
then the next, and so on.

The snakes are controlled with two joysticks much like a radio-controlled
aircraft. 鈥淭hey needed to be simple to drive,鈥� he says. One is for steering and
speed. The other controls the sidewinding movement as well as lift.