The sidewinder rattlesnake has a familiar, hypnotic way of moving that serves it well in the sandy deserts it inhabits. It can even twist its way uphill in soft, loose sand, an achievement that anyone who has tried to climb a dune can appreciate.

So Daniel I. Goldman, a physicist at Georgia Tech who studies animal motion on tricky ground — or substrates — joined with biologists and roboticists to study the snake’s sideways movement.

“I’ve been interested in animals on sand,” Dr. Goldman said, both because of the physics of this kind of granular substance and because of the complicated mechanics of getting anywhere walking or winding along it. He has spent a lot of time studying the sandfish, “a little lizard that swims in sand.”

The sidewinder, which lives in the desert, was of obvious interest, so he got together with Zoo Atlanta and roboticists at Carnegie Mellon. They imported sidewinders and 400 pounds of sand from Arizona and built an experimental slope complete with a system to blow air through the sand to keep it consistent for each trial.