Nature Inspired: Robot That Walks On Water And Jumps

The team collected lots of water striders and took videos of their movements so they could analyze what mechanics would be necessary in order to achieve that with a tiny robot. The tiny robots can stay afloat on a water surface as well as move on it by jumping, while all the other robots will sink deep in the efforts.

One of the study researchers, Kyu Jin Cho, affirmed that he was quite fascinated by the way water striders jump on water.

The machine was relatively simple, but the engineers were able to tweak it so that it jumped from the surface just like a fleeing water strider might.

While this isn’t completely new technology, this is the first time scientists have been able to recreate a robotic strider to scale.

A paper on the study, which was published Friday in the journal Science, even provides deeper insights into the physiological mechanism that allows water striders to perform their famous jumps. In order to accomplish that, they captured actual insects jumping on camera and studied their movements closely to determine their secret.

The team set out to mimic the water strider’s motion and integrate it into the design of the robot.

The scientists used a theoretical model of a flexible cylinder floating on liquid to determine that the maximum force of the water striders’ legs remains just below the maximum force that water surface tension can hold. Many small living creatures take advantage of the water’s surface pressure to make a movement around.

“This is due to their natural morphology”, said Cho. Surprisingly, the robotic insect has the ability to reach the same velocity and height jumping from the water surface as if it were jumping from the ground or a hard surface.

We can learn from this kind of physical intelligence to build robots that are similarly capable of performing extreme maneuvers without highly-complex controls or artificial intelligence.

When hey developed the robotic insect the scientists applies this mechanism.

The Harvard Paulson School and Wyss Institute collaborated on the robot’s body, which is extremely lightweight and folder over on itself.

Additional co-authors of the study include Gwang-Pil Jung, Sun-Pill Jung, Jae Hak Son, Sang-Im Lee, and Piotr Jablonski.

The research was funded by South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration.