A robot whose body expands on demand to support disaster rescue.

A robot whose body expands on demand to support disaster rescue.

At the time of disasters, rescue teams need to ensure the presence of survivors under the rubble, which is a difficult process that takes a long time and effort. However, a joint research team from the Italian Institute of Technology and the University of Montpellier in France has taken an important step towards providing technical support for these efforts, by announcing... A prototype of a snake-shaped robot that can perform this role .

The new robot relies on an innovative technology inspired by plants by researchers and allows it to independently decide when to extend its body, and the amount of this expansion based on the surrounding environment, so that it can then reach places that are difficult for traditional robots to reach . 

In explaining the details of this technology in a study published in the journal Science Robotics, the researchers said that they succeeded in overcoming the drawbacks of previous attempts by other scientists who tried to produce growing robots (that is, their bodies grow as needed). An expert polled by Al Jazeera Net described what the researchers did as having promising features and capabilities for the application .