BLACKSBURG, Va. – Flying snake robots could be a reality in the near future thanks to a new study by Virginia Tech researchers.
The goal of the multi-year study was to figure out how certain snakes are able to flatten themselves out and glide through the air.
Understanding the snakes will help in the development of very small flying devices, like a drone the size of an insect, and even flying snake robots that could be used for search and rescue.
“If you’re wanting your ribbon-like robot, your snake-like search-and-rescue robot, to fly, what are the important principles that you have to build into the robot? What do you care about? Our study now provides us a template,” study author Jake Socha explained.
If you’d like to read the study, it is published in the journal Nature Physics.