This might be old news to many people, but since I’ve read a weblog at ZDNet about the robotic Snakefighter developed by SINTEF Slashdot have picked up the story and I bet others will too. The robotic snake named ‘Anna Konda’ have been developed for fighting fires, subsea work and preventing explosions.

ZDNet bases it’s weblog on content from a report on the project and design written by SINTEF employee and media department journalist Åse Dragland. She’s also Editor in Chief of GEMINI who first published the article in the 2005/2006 english issue of GEMINI, almost one year after being published in the norwegian edition in february 2005.

I’ve read up on the project on SINTEFs webpage and this project is really cool. They’ve created a prototype that is powered by the water running through it, and it’s strong enough to penetrate walls. The robot moves at 30 to 60 cm/min and can even get across bumpy terrain (read: rubble within a burning house, rough seafloors, etc.). SINTEF together with several departments from NTNU are working on the project and are also looking for a commercial partner for further developments.