A man with engineering know-how has built a robot outfit that gives snakes the capacity to “walk with legs”.
Allen Pan, a YouTuber from Los Angeles, made a DIY device out of a long tube and four plastic “legs” attached to the controls.
Allen Pan, a California-based engineer and YouTuber, created the device out of a plastic tube and four robotic legs that were modelled on a lizard.
To prove his followers that he was a snake lover, he said he “wanted to give snakes back their legs”.
Image Credit: YouTube / Allen Pan
He noted in his video that snakes had legs roughly 100 to 150 million years ago but had subsequently evolved to the point where they could survive without them – a genetic mutation, it is considered.
Allen designed an exoskeleton so that a snake could walk with legs (Image: Allen Pan/Youtube)
“I actually feel bad for snakes; they lost their legs and nobody is even trying to find them – except for me,” Allen explained.
“When any other animal has deformed legs, humanity comes together to spit in God’s face and we built that animal awesome new cyborg legs.”
Allen’s goal is to build an instrument that a snake “could choose to put on or take off”, thus he used a long plastic open tube in which the snake can fit.
Four robotic legs are attached to the tubes and may be triggered remotely and controlled on a laptop.
The snake has no control over the robotic legs but Allen could activate the machine wirelessly (Image: Allen Pan/Youtube)
Allen took his concept to a snake breeder and had one of his snakes test drive the robot.
As the reptile made its way into the tube, Allen said: “She’s zooming right now. This is actually incredible, the fact that she’s getting more comfortable with the legs.
“Oh yes, she totally wants her legs back.”
When the snake pushed its head out of the tube’s end, Allen triggered the robot, which began crawling on the floor.
Snake breeder Anthony Zavala said he could tell his snake was comfortable inside the tube during the walk (Image: YouTube/AllenPan)
“Look at that, I cannot believe this is working, oh my God!” he said.
Snake breeder Anthony Zavala can be heard giggling and added: “You did it! It was even looking side to side.”
Although the snake has no control over its legs, it becomes curious while the robot walks it.
Viewers loved Allen’s invention, with one writing: “As a snake owner with a legless snake, I am so grateful that there is someone looking for the little guy.”
“The snake finally coming through and being like ‘oh! What’s this’ when moving was so so cute,” a second added.