Snake-Arm Robots Slither Forward

by Jonathan Fildes BBC News, 13 Sept 2006 Increasingly, precise jobs in difficult-to-reach or hazardous places, are done by robots. The army use them for bomb disposal and space agencies use them to explore distant planets. But many robots are bulky and most are relatively inflexible. To access really difficult parts, engineers must turn to a different breed of machine. Snake-arm robots are lightweight, flexible manipulator arms. They look like a spinal column, made of lots of individual vertebrae, and can contort to any desired shape. One day it is hoped that their slender tentacles could be used to control intricate operations deep within the recesses of the human brain. Read more