The key, they decided, was to mimic the movement of an Earth creature that has to deal with a grainy, hilly environment: the sidewinder. “The regolith and sand have similar properties. They’re both very porous. We looked at real snakes that use this locomotion called sidewinding to go up slopes using the friction of the sand, and we eventually came up with the design,” says Schroeter.
They dubbed it Cobra, which stands for Crater Observing Bio-inspired Rolling Articulator. The students first built a “Mini Cobra,” which at just under 2 feet long and 5 pounds is about a third the size of the final design. It is made of 11 linked carbon fiber and nylon units. Each houses a battery-powered actuator—essentially a motor—that can transform commands from a Raspberry Pi in the snake’s head into motion.
To test these functions, the team sent the Mini Cobra flying down loading docks and through parking lots around Northeastern’s downtown Boston campus. One challenge was finessing the latching mechanism that connects Cobra’s head and tail when it switches into tumbling mode. It would sometimes latch too strongly, creating the potential for damaged wires or a lost connection.
Nice article.
I am the pusher robot