Robot snake Guardian S penetrates into the most inaccessible places

Snake robot is in police service

Snake robot is developed by Sarcos, is able not only to penetrate into remote and dangerous places, but in real-time to inform about potential hazards during the rescue operations. The collection and analysis of information necessary to monitor potential threats, is implemented with the help of sensors and cloud technologies of Microsoft.

One of the areas where robots have a great help people, is the study of danger zones and exploration in conditions that are unacceptable to humans. Typically, the functionality of such devices is very limited, they include only video and sound equipment for communication and control. However, these data are often insufficient to obtain a complete picture of the incident, for example, in the mines people can threaten not just the collapse, but also poisonous gases or fire.

To solve this problem the company Sarcos has developed a robot snake Guardian S. Due to the magnetic tracks he can climb sheer surfaces, and its small size and ability to bend allows it to penetrate into hard to reach places like the rubble or filled with cargo holds of ships. The robot is equipped with a flashlight for orientation in dark rooms and speaker and microphone are needed, for example, for communication between the team of rescuers and people trapped under the rubble. In Sarcos believe that their robot is able to enlist the police to, if necessary, to go into the line of fire or even to act as a mediator in the negotiations. Unique robot Guardian’s makes not only its unusual shape, but that the device, resembling a reptile, able to inform the experts about potential threats in receiving and analyzing information using sensors and cloud technology Microsoft Azure.

“What makes this robot truly unique is the sensors that transmit information to the cloud, says co-founder of Sarcos Ben wolf. — As the snake collects and transmits data about the environment, operators from anywhere can document and analyze information, being in complete safety.”

At the scene of the robot bring in a small suitcase (it weighs around 6 pounds), and include sinhroniziruete with the tablet on Windows. After that, the Guardian’s ready to research: the operator sees on the screen a picture of one of the four cameras and can control the robot using two joysticks. The developers explain that he deliberately made the control similar to computer games, since many users it will be familiar.

Guardian’s can move both on land and under water. It can be installed different sensors — e.g. temperature, humidity, water content in the air of certain toxic elements, and so on. All information is sent to the cloud service based on Microsoft Azure.

“Sooner or later the robot will support machine learning — that is, it will process large amounts of data to find patterns and predict problems,” says Ben wolf. Then Guardian’s will be able to keep an eye on remote parts of the infrastructure and alert the operator only in case, if you find an anomaly.