Amoeba bot is first to arrive on the scene, and last to do anything productive
Brought to you by the mechanical engineers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, those same roboteers that brought us the IMPASS "wheg" bot last week, we have the amoeba bot that roughly models its form of movement after that of everyone's favorite single cell organism. The robot is covered in a flexible skin, shaped like a hollow sausage, and crawls along by progressively turning itself inside out, either through contracting and expanding the skin, or through the movement of internal ring-shaped devices. The upshot of all this is that the amoeba bot can fit through an opening half of its diameter, perfect for the navigating the rubble of the ubiquitous rescue mission. The question we're asking is, what on earth is this thing going to do once it arrives on the scene?
