Carnegie Mellon University Biorobotics Lab · legged machine
Modular snake robot
Snakebot
A tethered, 16-module snake robot about 94 cm long and 5 cm across that can undulate or roll, with a camera and lights in its head. CMU says this unit was already more than 10 years old in 2017.
- Price
- —Not published
- Height
- 5 cmTaller than 0%
- Weight
- —Not published
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
First real-disaster use of CMU's snake robot, searching voids in a collapsed building after the 2017 Mexico City earthquake.
Real-world use
Made two camera passes through a collapsed apartment building in Mexico City with the Mexican Red Cross in September 2017; no survivors were found.
Timeline
- Released
- Not yet
Maker
Carnegie Mellon University Biorobotics LabUniversity lab · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USAHow it stacks up
Against other legged & novel that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
Modular snake robot (Snakebot) is taller than 0% of the 22 other legged & novel that publish a height. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Modular snake robot (Snakebot) has more joints than 56% of the 16 other legged & novel that publish a joints. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: weight, speed, payload, battery, price.
Public attention
How much public attention Modular snake robot (Snakebot) gets, from open data.
- No Wikipedia article of its own yet
- 1 news story from reputable press listed on this page
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-13; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Movement
- Other movement · 16 joints
- How it runs
- Remote-controlled. Operators drove the tethered snake and its camera by hand through the collapsed building.
- Actuators & motors
- 16 modules, each with two half-joints (16 DoF)
- Sensors & vision
- Video camera and lights in the head
- Other details
- About 94 cm long and 5 cm across; tethered for power and control; more than 10 years old in 2017
From the maker
Modular snake robot (Snakebot) is the only machine from Carnegie Mellon University Biorobotics Lab (Howie Choset, Matt Travers) in the atlas.
Watch Modular snake robot (Snakebot)
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- Not published
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Built
- Research robot
- Sold or delivered
- not sold
- Customers and pilots
- Used with the Mexican Red Cross after the September 2017 earthquake
News
The latest 1, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- CMU snakebot searches quake rubble
CMU's snake robot made two camera passes through a collapsed Mexico City building with the Mexican Red Cross.
Carnegie Mellon University
Sources
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