Robot snakes searched for Venezuela earthquake survivors in collapsed buildings

Robots that move like snakes slithered into collapsed buildings in Venezuela to search for survivors after a pair of earthquakes struck on June twenty-fourth. Ars Technica reports the disaster killed more than five thousand people and left roughly sixteen thousand seven hundred injured. Alongside rescue dogs, acoustic listening gear, and thermal cameras, these snakebots carried a video camera into tightly packed rubble that people and machinery could not reach. Howie Choset, who heads the Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, told the outlet the robots extended rescuers' visual reach safely, comparing the work to performing minimally invasive surgery on a damaged structure.

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