The development of robots capable of navigating both water and air has long been a goal for researchers, and a new breakthrough in this area has brought us one step closer to achieving this goal.
A team of scientists at EPFL in Switzerland and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has created a lightweight robot that can swim underwater and then fly through the air like a bird. The robot, known as a flapping-wing aerial-aquatic vehicle (FAAV), takes inspiration from diving birds, which are able to both fly and swim.
The robot's design features a central fuselage, two flexible flapping wings, and a steerable tail. Its wings are made from thin membranes coated with hydrophobic nanoparticles to repel water, while a waterproof electric motor drives the flapping motion.
During tests in a laboratory water tank and later in Lake Geneva, the team identified combinations of wing size, flapping frequency, and tail angle that enabled the robot to swim underwater, break through the surface, and continue flying. The researchers found that wings measuring around 80cm across provided the best balance between flexibility in water and rigidity in flight.
The robot's flexible wings give it the ability to flap like a bird, allowing it to swim at almost one metre per second and fly at approximately six metres per second using a similar wingbeat frequency. To transition from water to air, the robot had to pitch upwards at an angle of about 70 degrees to prevent its wingtips touching the surface.
The technology behind this robot has the potential to revolutionize the field of environmental monitoring, allowing oceanographers and marine biologists to launch the robot from a boat or shore and collect data in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional methods.
The research team is now working on improving the wing design so that the robot can also rotate its wings while flying. Future tests will examine how it performs in rough water and windy conditions before it is deployed in ocean research.
The development of this robot is a significant step forward in the field of robotics and has the potential to open up new possibilities for scientific research and environmental monitoring.
