We know that humans have always taken nature’s designs to be their inspiration – such as the plane and robotic worms, but how about using a snail as a model? That certainly would be farthest from most people’s minds, but snails “gallop” around such as the inchworm, sticking the front of its foot to a surface, drawing up the rest of its body right behind. The galloping technique has been studied closer, and adapted and improved for robots by the Biomechatronics Lab at Chuo University in Japan.
Known as the “Snail-Wave Omnidirectional Mobile Robot,” Toro II, it definitely isn’t a snail at all, and there is no shell to crush, but the biggest advantage would be to have it move in all directions, thanks to a large and grippy area which is always in contact with the ground.
No idea on how it is going to be applied in real world use. What do you think? I’m quite sure the military would have a good idea on implementing it on the battlefield…
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/omnidirectional-robot-moves-like-a-galloping-snail
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