Not to be outdone with Cheetah-like and snake-inspired robots, a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology decided to work on a robot that mimics the paddling movement of baby sea turtles. For Daniel Goldman and his team, it’s not just about working on a pet project. The end goal will be to help scientists better understand how exactly flippers work, paving a way for better robots that can swim their way through both water and land.
Goldman says that another benefit of the research is the preservation of endangered sea turtles. Goldman believes that by developing turtle-like robots, they can figure out certain environmental factors that are threatening the habitat of sea turtles. The robot is called FlipperBot. Nearly 7.5-inches long and weighing just over 2 pounds, the FlipperBot features two motor-driven flippers with flexible wrists. FlipperBot is the first robot to use flippers as its main motor function.
Source: TechNewsDaily
