This autonomous underwater snake robot was developed in a collaboration between Kongsberg, the petroleum company Statoil, and Eelume -- a spin-off company from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
(Swimming snake robot video)
The reptilian robot will live permanently on the seabed to monitor underwater equipment and perform maintenance task.
The team conducted research on snakelike robots for more than 10 years to perfect the design.
"Now we take the step from academia and into the commercial world to secure our place in the new and exciting subsea intervention landscape," Pål Liljebäck, Eelume CTO, said in a press release.
The robot will carry out work like adjusting valves, for instance, which are hard to reach for humans.
These swimming snake-like robot terminators from the film Terminator Salvation are remarkably similar - especially the creepy part..
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.' - Neal Asher, 2008.
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Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'