Sarcos to debut snake robot with potential for fluid handling applications

Sarcos, a global manufacturer of advanced robotic systems, has announced its Guardian S snake robot, a first-of-its-kind robotic unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).

The Guardian S is the first-ever commercially available energetically autonomous snake robot, developed after years of research and in-field trials, and it is protected by more than 50 issued patents.

It is the newest addition to the Sarcos Guardian robot product line, and is designed for use in a wide range of industries, including oil and gas, maritime, mining, infrastructure inspection, public safety, security, and disaster recovery.

The Guardian S is expected to be available commercially in late autumn of 2015.

It weighs less than 8lbs, has up to 16 hours of battery life, can carry a full suite of sensors, and facilitates two-way real-time video and voice communications.

The robot is intuitive to use and can be tele-operated from miles away.

It can scale the inside and outside of storage tanks, pipes, maritime vessels, vehicles, and other vertical surfaces, and reliably traverse challenging terrain, including passing through narrow pipes and culverts or climbing stairs.

Sarcos will make the Guardian S available pursuant to a Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) offering, with Sarcos providing free maintenance and upgrades to the robot. 

Pricing for the service starts at $1,500 per month, making the robot more economical than UGVs with similar capabilities.

However, due to the robot’s obvious military nature and restrictions imposed by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Guardian S may only be supplied to companies and government agencies located within the United States, unless prior approval has been secured from the United States Department of State.