Video: Giant Snake Robot ACM-R5

Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Another cool robot from Japan. This time, it’s a huge snake robot, made by the Hirose-Fukushima Lab at Tokyo Institute of Technology. The researchers say it’s not a fun project but that they aim at finding out how snakes can move forward without legs (?) and how a snake-shaped robot could be used for practical applications.

As you can see in the video embedded below, the ACM-R5 moves like a real-life snake – even in water. Each joint comes with its own CPU, motor and battery to make sure they can work independently.

The robot was first shown back in 2005. Here’s a video Tokyo-based DigInfoNews shot of the newest version just a few days ago:

blog comments powered by Disqus