Titanoboa Meets Mondospider: Energy Efficient Mechanical Monsters Come Together (VIDEO)

Vancouver-based non-profit robotic design studio eatArt has released video of its latest project, dubbed Titanoboa. Weighing in at close to a ton and measuring 35 feet in length, the giant robotic snake uses 60 hydraulic pumps to simulate serpentine motion along its 20 massive vertebrae.

Named after an actual 50-foot snake that lived some 60 million years ago before cooler global temperatures forced its extinction, Titanoboa's creators say on their website that the project is intended to "provoke discussion about climate change in a historical context."

And Titanoboa is doing its part for the environment, too: it's powered by a scalable Lithium polymer battery system that limits emissions to essentially nothing.

In the video below, Titanoboa meets with Mondospider, a walking mechanical spider large enough to carry a human passenger. According to the contraption's website, the 1,700 pound walking machine is the first of its kind, using just one 48V Lithium Iron Phosphate battery pack to carry a passenger, meaning it's also emissions-free.

A shorter version of the electric snake premiered at the Burning Man festival earlier this year, and the creators plan to have a full size, 50-foot version up and running soon, according to a report from The Verge.

WATCH:

Comments

[Carbon Forteetoo]

02:31 PM on 11/19/2011

If the child moves...I STRIKE! If the child does not move...I STRIKE!

Waiting for robotic mongoose.

[Stewpendous]

04:20 PM on 11/18/2011

Very cool but what purpose do they have? Never the less, I still want one!

[Alain Posteur]

02:24 PM on 11/18/2011

I kept expecting them to fight.

Too much Hollywood, I guess.