During a 2014 talk on his exploration of deep-sea coral reefs, Baruch College marine biologist David Gruber showed a video of clunky robotic hands collecting fragile specimens of coral and sponges from the ocean floor. Harvard engineer and roboticist Robert J. Wood was in the audience …
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Dive of the RoboBee
In 1939, a Russian engineer proposed a “flying submarine” — a vehicle that can seamlessly transition from air to water and back again. While it may sound like something out of a James Bond film, engineers have been trying to design functional aerial-aquatic vehicles for decades …
Read More »Higher Level Thinking Enabled for Underwater Robots
Programming underwater robots can be a tedious task. Engineers have to break down missions into small, simple tasks, and then write scripts for each low-level command. Now a new approach, developed by researchers at MIT, will enable the robots to figure out more on their own. …
Read More »Octopus-Inspired Robot Speeds Through Water
Researchers at the University of Southampton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology have built a speedy, underwater robot modeled after an octopus. The robot features a 3D printed skeleton but has no moving parts or energy storage device, aside from …
Read More »Robots Discover Warm Storms Deep in the Ocean
The dynamic systems causing sheets of ice in West Antarctica to melt are less mysterious, thanks to a team of glider robots. Using data collected by the bots, the team was able to deduce that swirling ocean eddies help transport warm waters to the Antarctic coast. Knowing how the warm …
Read More »Robot Spy Moves Stealthily Through Water
Researchers at MIT have developed a sneaky underwater robot intended to find ships with illegally imported goods. The robot, which resembles a two-tone football, was built using a 3D printer. It consists of two halves: one is waterproof and contains the electronics, accelerometers, gyroscopes and the battery. …
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