The researchers have reported a number of advances in the direction of small robots that can walk on water. These robots could fly over lakes and other water bodies to monitor water quality or the water.
Notes for researchers is that real water striders actually jump. The jumping robot is difficult because the downward force needed to propel it into the air usually pushes the legs above the water surface. Researcher's sought new mechanisms and materials to build a robot that walks in actual water.
The use of porous, super foam nickel-repellent water to make the three supports and two legs jump, the Group made a robot that could leap more than 5.5 inches, despite weighing up to 1,100 shorebirds. More than twice its own length. In the experiments, the robot was able to have nearly 14 inches in front of the waterfall of about 3.6 miles per hour license.
The authors of the report stated that the ability to change obstacles bio-inspired microrobot agile and more capable in the water hits a surface.
Therefore, the combination of all these factors critical lightweight, long limbs and similar physical mechanisms researchers have created the weaver robot.
To reproduce this ability to jump into a robot, I-Sung Ko and his colleagues at Seoul National University have studied how the shoemakers do. Bio-inspired robot shows that this unusual insectoid resulting capacity can be reproduced in an artificial system. The results of this teamwork are in the latest issue of Science.
Knots, a semi-aquatic arthropods are designed specifically for this task. They have an unusually low body mass and superhydrophobic legs. Moreover, based on their root section Sandpiper Trasi center only by surface tension. If they can make spectacular leaps these insects generate enough vertical force to break surface water, which is an action that usually requires a high dynamic range.
By analyzing high-speed imaging, the researchers discovered that water striders make the counsel of his legs bent inward with a force just below what is necessary to break the water surface. The authors determined that the level of power -- exactly 144 milli-Newton / meter with the help of a theoretical model of a flexible cylinder, floating in the liquid.
In addition, the researchers found that the water spider legs longer accelerate gradually so that the surface of the water is removed too quickly and lose contact with the legs. Surprisingly, sandpipers can jump in the water so high than jumping on the floor.
Armed with this knowledge, researchers are set to the task of a similar robot. The resulting scale to jump robot, which weighs only 68 milligrams, perfectly recreates the controlled acceleration of their biological counterparts. The researchers used a mechanism of "reverse torque catapult" to generate the small amount of output torque required.
