Robotic member of the snails

2004/01/21 Kortabarria Olabarria, Beñardo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Robotika

Before performing the robot, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has spent months studying the movement of the snails. And the only thing they have done is to imitate the movement of the snails.

|Snail has a rubber foot that glides on a thin layer of muki z, in this case, of silicon oil. And unlike other forms of surface locomotion, the snails do not use the traction to progress, but create the movement by putting the mucus between their flexible body and the earth.

Applicable to the oil industry

The oil industry has shown its interest in this technology to help them deal with a number of problems in drilling wells. In fact, drilling machines can only drill down, and when they reach suitable depth, they cannot continue drilling laterally. The new technology would allow it to do so. On the other hand, thanks to its locomotion form, robots like Snail could move through viscous oil wells.

In addition to the locomotive mode, the snails have another interesting aspect: the body joints are not visible. Consequently, a snail based machine, protected by anticorrosive rubber, would be of great use in chemically aggressive environments.

For the moment, researchers try to improve Snail until they get a version that completely imitates his natural companion, the snail.