Twirly SpringBot Likes Pipes
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 17 of February , 2010 at 3:14 am
Nobody wants mess around inside sewer pipes, which is why robots have been doing it since one tried to kill James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever back in the seventies. This pipe inspection robot, developed by Osaka Gas and Koichi Osuka, a professor at Osaka University’s Graduate School of Engineering, has an innovative spiral springy shape that gives it all kinds of useful characteristics. The body of the robot can adapt to different sized pipes by expanding outwards, and wheels mounted parallel to the body drive it forward in a spiraling motion. The bot has no trouble making turns and getting past joints, and can carry a camera or other sensor packages.
This isn’t exactly a shape shifting robot, but it is a robot with a non-rigid body that can adapt its shape as required by its environment without relying on sensors or motors: you stick it in a pipe, and it fits the pipe. It’s that simple.
[ Mainichi ] VIA [ Gizmowatch ]
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Category: Industrial
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