This article was originally published with the title “ Circular Motion and Rectilinear Motion ” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 21 No. 17 (October 1869), p. 265 doi:10.1038 ...

An extreme example of their diversity of movement gives the sidewinder rattlesnake its name. ... Newman said robots that can harness a snake's rectilinear motion could have profound applications.

Researchers have replicated a snake's highly efficient rectilinear locomotion in a new all-terrain robot called Scalybot 2.