Italian engineers have produced a robot to study the bottom of the ocean and other bodies of water. In contrast to the majority of marine equipment, this is similar to the crab, the robot does not swim but walks along the bottom. This allows him to explore complex reliefs, actively interact with the environment, as well as still and silent them for a long time. Article published in Robotics Science.
The development of underwater robotics has greatly facilitated the work of everyone who studies the sea, from geologists and ecologists to marine biologists. Almost the only alternative to the use of remotely operated vehicles to dive to researchers, what’s hard, requires no special skills or health, and sometimes dangerous.
The bulk of the currently used marine robots is a miniature underwater drones, controlled by cable, rarely Autonomous, since under water it almost impossible radio. In rare cases, to study the fauna of the used robots that looks like fishto less frightening sea creatures.
Meanwhile, floating devices, there are a number of disadvantages. First, they depend on currents and almost can still passively still hang: their position can be preserved only at the expense of the work of engines. Second, the lack of hard focus makes it difficult to take geological or biological samples, and the manipulators are a significant barrier to swim. Finally, the more complex the landscape, the harder it is to get directly to the bottom ground by swimming.
Picardie Giacomo (Giacomo Picardi) from the School of advanced studies name of St. Anna and his colleagues proposed to solve these problems, designed a robot that can not swim but walks along the bottom. After a series of experiments, the scientists came to the conclusion that the optimal way of walking along the bottom have already been developed in nature, and it is used by crabs, and that their appearance is largely influenced by the device SILVER2.