ACM-R5 Robot Snake

The Hirose Fukushima Lab in Japan has unveiled its latest creation: the ACM-R5, an incredible amphibious robotic snake.

The ACM-R5 uses special paddles and wheels mounted around its body to propel itself through water and over ground in a truly snake-like fashion, generating propulsive force to allow it to glide freely in the tangential direction but not the normal direction, just like a real snake.

Each joint in the ACM-R5 contains a CPU, battery and individual motors, and all of the joints can operate independently. The control system allows these units to communicate via exchanged signals, so that the units can work together to provide locomotion as a whole.

This system also allows the operators to add, remove and swap out units quickly and easily, and also allows the ACM-R5 to be quickly modified according to its assigned task.

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