Today’s invention is a special purpose spanner, designed to allow nuts to be undone inside complicated systems without having to dismantle them.
This takes the form of a chain of meshing gears, held together by a set of bars.
At the head of this would be a gear chosen to have a hexagonal interior to match the target nut. It would also carry a small, wireless camera, to help direct the ‘snake’ as more gears are added to the other end.
When the nut has been engaged, the bars would be locked in place and a motor drive applied to the distal end.
This would allow certain electromechanical systems to be diassembled only by the use of such a spanner…potentially increasing resistance to reverse engineering.