VIDEO: Is that a snake, a creepy worm or a robot? Watch this clip that’s confusing people

As the robot stretches, it grips the ground just like snakeskin. (Source: Harvard University/YouTube)

Are you scared of creepy crawlies and slimy reptiles? This soft robot inspired by snakeskin will leave you horror-stricken. A team of researchers from the Harvard John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) developed the robot, and it might just scare the living daylights out of many.

“The soft robotic scales are made using kirigami – an ancient Japanese paper craft that relies on cuts, rather than origami folds, to change the properties of a material. As the robot stretches, the flat kirigami surface is transformed into a 3D-textured surface, which grips the ground just like snake skin,” a 1.51-minute clip showing the robot has been captioned.

Watch the video here.

 

Wondering why there was a need for such a technology? It has been developed in order to deploy the robots in disaster zones where walking might not be possible.