We don’t get the chance to see many snakebots. There’s the Japanese M-Tran, a shape shifting robot, but that hardly counts as a snakebot. Anna Konda, however, is very much a snakebot. Despite looking and acting very similarly to a penis, Anna is really a firefighter.

Anna has 20 joints, each with 33 degrees of freedom, giving it an extensive range of movement. What makes Anna such a stalwart firefighter is not only does it shoot water, it’s powered by water. Each joint module contains hydraulic valves and cylinders capable of handling up to 1450 PSI of water pressure. The downside is, Anna will never go wireless. Fire hoses aren’t wireless, are they?

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A new addition to the Toyota Partner Robots project, a campaign to integrate robots into everyday life. How a 56 kg violin-playing robot could be useful to us in everyday life is beyond us. In fact, we might even shoot the damn thing since we can hardly stand professional violin playing.

Equipped with 17 joints it its legs and arms, the violin bot uses “precise control and coordination to achieve human-like dexterity.” The problem with this is that much music is best when filled with the human emotion. Something that a robot would never be able to truly obtain. — Andrew Dobrow

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Robots might be super effective and helpful, but they just look so un-huggable. These Biomimetic Soft-Bodied “Gummi Bots” seem so much more cuddly, and certainly more agile. Though, Gummi’s have more of a purpose then looking adorable. Metallic robots are often limited in movement by their clumsy joints. This robotics project at Tufts University is looking into a flexible, silicone rubber skin, nicknamed Dragon Skin. The Gummi’s are able to slither through springs built into their rubber segments.

The Gummi’s move much like a caterpillar. So far, scientists have only been able to cause a ripple of movement the length of a robot. By the end of the year, researchers hope to have a caterpillar motion created for the Gummi to showcase. The goal of creating a Gummi like robot is to use them for disagreeable jobs in the military field, such as checking for mines and crawling into hard to reach areas. Gummi Bot could one day save many lives, while looking absolutely darling. — Andrew Dobrow

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