A robot shaped like a snake that can crawl on the ground has lately been developed with the endeavor of five postgraduates from the National Defense Science and Technology University. It marks a breakthrough in China's robot developing field.

At a length of 1.2 meter and a diameter of 0.06 meter, the 1.8 kilogram-weighted snake can crawl on the ground or grass like a real one, able to go forward and backward, turn round and speed up with a top speed reaching 20 meters per minute. Equipped with video camera as its "eyes", it can transmit scenes before it to computers and receive remote-sensing orders through the control center installed in its head. Cloaked in a "snake skin" it can also swim in water.

As a new type of bionic robot, it is different from any traditional wheeled or two-footed robot that realizes movements without "feet". It has qualities of reasonable structure, flexible control and steady performance. It can be applied to many circumstances, such as conducting reconnaissance in battlefield or environments of radiation, dust and poison, looking for injured people in racks and ruins after earthquake, landslide and fire, probing and dredging narrow and dangerous tubes and providing experiment platform for studies on mathematics, mechanics, cybernetic theory and artificial intelligence.

( November 27, 2001)