Design and Development of a Segmented Ciliary-Driven Serpent Robot for Search Operation of Collapsed Buildings

Disasters such as earthquakes can cause damage to houses, buildings, and other similar infrastructures, which can pose significant threats to human personnel or lead to human entrapment. Traditionally, human rescuers perform search and rescue operations to look for possible survivors within the vicinity of the disaster. However, partially collapsed buildings pose a threat to the rescuers as aftershocks may endanger them while still searching for a victim. In addition, robots can assist human rescuers in the search and rescue operations of collapsed buildings. Recently, serpent robots have risen in popularity and are developed to help rescuers in search and rescue operations. This study aims to design and create a prototype of an alternative serpent robot that is ciliary-driven and constructed with a segmented body. As mentioned, the system in this study utilizes a ciliary drive mechanism that is operated and is mainly based on cilia and vibration motors. Also, the segmented body is designed to offer ease of restoration in the possibility of damaged components inside the robot and retain the proper placement of components. The paper presents the design, proof of concept, and various tests of the proposed system.