Hey look, it's a robot snake. We've seen lots of robot snakes. We like robot snakes. What this picture doesn't properly communicate, though, is that this particular robot snake is large enough to swallow you whole.Â
Yeah, uh, it's big. Very big. Called Titanoboa (after an actual prehistoric snake of the same size), when completed this robot will be 15 meters long (50 feet), weigh a ton (literally), and range in diameter from 0.3 to 1 meter (1 to 3 feet), which is easily enough to down a skinny human without even chewing. A scalable lithium-ion battery system powers the hydraulics, which can output up to 18 horsepower, meaning that this thing could quite easily drag you away with it if it so chose, presumably to strangle and then eat you, 'cause that's what snakes do.
Of course, it would have to catch you first, but Titanoboa seems to have no issues whatsoever when it comes to snakelike movement:
That spider thing, by the way, is called Mondo Spider, you can totally ride in it, and there's more info here.
Titanoboa made an appearance at Burning Man this year, and if you happen to live up in Vancouver, you can see it at its home base at Great Northern Way Campus on December 15.
