There... it is mentioned. Seemingly the most useless robots that you could imagine, but they do have their own characteristics and some advantages over typical designs:

super-simmetry, it is the same thing from all sides, or almost (--- :)), at least radially and longitudinally, so they are second only to balls;

stability, well, we expect it to stay on the floor, but should it fall off the cliff, so to say, everything would stay the same and it would hardly fall on its head ((: ----);

homogeneity, from the outside, which means it can be as smooth as you want with no visible parts (-(:)-);

modularity, can grow as long as you like and each part can be exactly the same as the previous part... with the exception of the head and maybe the anus ((:--:-:));

s l o w n e s s , we do not expect it to be the fastest collecting data at all!

stubborness, to call it some way, once set in one direction it would stay going in that direction ___(--- :))

scalability, we may make it as small as small is possible, or as big as an excavator and still be the same robot...

So overall a worm robot only falls short of a ball robot, which is a lot to say indeed. So these are general characteristics, but, what s in a robot, in a robot, in a robot? This is just the beginning for worm robotics, its practice and theory, for
future particular robots we *may* find other advantages and even uses! A silicon skin robot, for instance, can function both in other planets as on the bed of a river. And it does not have to be round, we can even make it flat!

Probably the most important characteristic is that, just as biological beings are completely sealed (...), a worm robotic can have its mechanisms completely sealed from the environment and unaccessible. So there will be no flat tires, dust in the brain
or rough edges scratching the wall, it all is neatly enclosed into the robot form, so much, we can even feed it with Solar power or magnetic induction! And be very fashionly wi-fi controlled (which seems to amount to start-stop commands and send-receive,
but anyway...).

I can also see a few ways to actually induce movement in the worm, I mean, robot, which would give this branch of robotics the most versatility as it does not have to rely only on revolutions-turned-other-movement motors.

Then: what s in a worm, in a worm, in a worm? A robot.

[maybe more later, but meanwhile lets try to kick a project start to have the first one(s) working, ahem! moving]

Danilo J Bonsignore

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