Longtime Core77 readers know that I hate robots and hate snakes, but I fully support the idea of robot snakes. And while Carnegie Mellon's non-snake CHIMP robot did not win the DARPA Robotics Challenge, they've got some snakebots up their sleeve that may prove more promising.

The thing about most robots is that their size is not easily adjustable. You can make them crouch or fold over, but the mass is the same. However, CMU's Modular Snake Robots rectify this by taking a cue from Lego. The developers have come up with short snake sections, each with their own "brain," that can be snapped together before deployment by the operator, who can make snakebots—or crab-bots with snake legs—that are as long or short as s/he wishes.

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And as the video below shows, you can even add specialized sections, for instance if you wanted to add wheels:

I think the idea has merit. However, I also think the guy at the end of the video sitting in front of a ROBOT ARM THAT BRINGS A FORK TO HIS FACE is a freaking maniac.