YouTuber decides to fix snakes, constructs robotic legs for them to wear

Earlier this summer, YouTuber Allen Pan decided to see if he could smuggle snakes through airport security, bringing fake versions of the animal across state lines. Now, determined to repay the creatures for their help in making an internet video, Pan is giving back to all serpentkind with a brand new invention: A set of robot legs that provide snakes with the limbs that biology has so cruelly denied them.

Pan, who we wrote about in the past when he turned himself into an exoskeleton-wearing swordfighter, explains that he needs to defy nature’s limits once again by giving snakes new limbs meant to make up for the fact that their vestigial legs are lost before birth.

“When any other animal has deformed legs, humanity comes together to spit in god’s face and we build that animal awesome new cyborg legs,” Pan says. “But nobody loves snakes enough to build them robot legs. Nobody except for me, snake lover Allen Pan.”

After studying three-toed skink and sea robin legs, messing around with a blood pressure cuff-style prototype, and designing around the fact that he needs to allow a snake to get in and out of its robot suit with ease, Pan comes up with a final product that consists of a clear plastic tube with four motorized legs attached to it.

When he finally gets a snake to give the device a test drive, Pan’s concept is vindicated. “The snakes want their legs back!” he declares as the test pilot “walks” along for a few feet before bumping into an obstacle. His mission is a success.

Thanks to his work, Pan has not only given the snakes new options for getting around, he’s also helped them become far less creepy. As it turns out, when they have a little exoskeleton to wear, snakes can’t easily slither into strange, unexpected places and their horrifying stealthiness is tempered when their movements are accompanied by the sound of whirring servos.

With this in mind, we suggest that all snakes be offered a free pair of robot legs to at least try out for themselves. Best case scenario, they freak people out less while enjoying a new form of mobility. Worst case scenario, humanity unleashes a mass of Dark Souls enemies upon the face of the Earth and we eventually lose our spot at the top of the food chain so another animal can give running the planet a shot for a little while.

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