Content creator Allen Pan recently uploaded a video on YouTube that gained millions of viewers just a couple of days after he developed robot legs to help a snake walk.
The said video, according to a Newsweek report, shows Pan using an "engineering know-how" to develop homemade exoskeletons, battlebots, and other inventionsntly attracting millions of viewers online.
The YouTuber said the purpose of this project was to prove that he is a snake-loving person after he gained some criticism from a previously uploaded video in which he and some of his friends appeared to catch a wild snake with the apparent objective of sneaking it beyond airport security.
According to reports, the snake ended up fleeing before attempting to capture it. Pan said in the YouTube video that he feels sorry for snakes as "they lost their legs."
Snakes Lose Legs to Better Adapt to Water Environments
Snakes used to wander with legs but lost them about 150 million years ago and since then they have shifted from strut to slither. According to two scientists, snakes lost their legs due to a genetic process, but the reptiles still have the "molecular machinery" for leg development, it is just switched off, NPR reported.
The circumstances around this change have been a topic of argument. Some contend that snakes were losing legs to better adapt to water environments, Science Focus reported..
Others, on the other hand, think being "legless would have allowed snakes to move around more easily, a Scientific American report specified.
In any circumstance, the video of Pan exhibits he's setting out to engineer a device that can be used by snakes to "walk," with one condition — the snake needs to be able to liberally get in and out of the device of its own.
Snake Receives Robotic Legs
As a result of this project, Pan was able to develop a hollow tube with robotic legs attached to servos that can be regulated using a laptop.
Toward the end of the YouTube video, the inventor visits a snake breeder who agrees to lend a python to test the machine.
The said python is seen slithering into the tube, which Pan then controlled. The snake itself did not have any control over the robotic legs.
In the video, content creator Allen Pan shows he’s setting out to engineer a device that can be used by snakes to ‘walk’ with one condition being that the snake needs to be able to liberally get in and out of the device of its own.
ALSO READ: How Animals Cheat To Defeat Their Opponents? New Study Explains Technique
Throughout the video, the video lies with its head that sticks out of one end of the tube, seemingly content with being transported around on the legs.
At the end of the uploaded video, Pan stops the legs from moving and the python slithers out of one end of the tube.
Snake Crawling Into Robotic Exoskeleton
Describing his invention, Pan said he could not get over the image of the snake as it crawled into its robotic exoskeleton. He added that he could not believe that his invention worked.
As of early this week, the video had won more than 1.6 million views on YouTube, while a video clip Pan tweeted gained more than 13 million views on Twitter.
Information about the snake's robotic legs is shown on Allen Pan's YouTube video below:
RELATED ARTICLE: Robotic 'Third Thumb' Impact People's Brains, Allows a Person to Do More
Check out more news and information on Animals and Robotics in Science Times.