Titanoboa robotic snake sizes up against Mondo Spider

In a move bound to prey on those with phobias, Canadian robotic design house eatArt has released a video of its latest project: the Titanoboa, a robotic snake based on a 50-foot long prehistoric serpent. The video pits the basilisk-like robot against the Mondo Spider, a walking machine large enough to hold a man, and there’s obvious competition between the two. While eatArt showed a shorter version of the snake rollerblading at the Burning Man festival earlier this year, at 35 feet this is the largest version of the robot so far, with the team aiming to reach the full length in the next year or so.

It’s surreal to watch the two robots battling it out, almost like a futurist Land of the Lost, but the engineering behind them is amazing — the Titanoboa moves exactly like a real snake, with fluid motions totally unlike the majority of robots we see climbing stairs or throwing a ball. Take a look at the video below, and watch out for the expression on the Mondo Spider operator’s face at about a minute in.