The Octo-Bot
It looks like robotic jellyfish won’t be the only soft robots exploring the seas. The Octopus Project, funded by the European Commission, is studying octopus movement and incorporating it into design and robotic technologies.
This iteration of the project is an eight-armed, submersible robot. The two large tentacles use a soft robotics technology powered by heat, while the six smaller tentacles use a system of steel and nylon cables to re-create octopuslike motion.
Why focus on the octopus? The real-life version offers a great example of a soft structure with advanced motor skills that can grasp objects, move around, change shape, and much more.
Researchers behind project hope to create new technologies by mimicking everything an octopus can do—so if all goes well, we might soon have a robot predicting soccer game winners.
Via IEEE Spectrum.
The Water Strider Bot
While octopi and jellyfish swim around underwater, this Lego “Omniboat” can skim the surface above.
The designer of this bot, Vimal Patel, built the center of the boat with Legos and keeps them afloat with Lego water bottles.
The setup even has a camera on board. Patel used another Lego pontoon to film parts of the video above.
The next step, we hope, is getting face-to-face footage of the ducks in the pond.
Via DVICE.
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