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Robot slinks around Harvard thanks to synthetic snakeskin

Robot slinks around Harvard thanks to synthetic snakeskin
Softonic Editorial Team

Softonic Editorial Team

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Source: Harvard University

There’s a snake-like bot prowling around Harvard, thanks to kirigami, the ancient Japanese art of paper cutting.

Builders of the weird, inflatable soft machine took advantage of the far-eastern technique to create three-dimensional scales that pop up from its artificial skin, which allows the bionic beast to gain traction on surfaces as it slithers along.

It’s effective, and a lot more practical than recreating the real thing.

Harvard’s synthetic serpent can navigate very tight spaces, which is ideal for searching rubble for survivors in the aftermath of an earthquake, for example.

Whether it will have any more exotic applications remains to be seen.

Softonic Editorial Team

Softonic Editorial Team

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