Japanese researchers made a flying snake robot that fights fires

Each week, we spotlight a cool innovation recommended by some of the industry's top tech writers. This week's pick is a fire-fighting robot. "Fires have an unfortunate habit of happening in places that aren't necessarily easy to reach," putting firefighters in lethal danger, said Evan Ackerman at IEEE Spectrum. That's led Japanese researchers to design a "snake-like robot" with the body of a fire hose. "Like other snake robots, this one has the potential to be able to wiggle its way into windows or other gaps in a structure, with the benefit of carrying and directing water as it goes."