The ART robot can change the shape of its limbs depending on the surrounding environment, allowing the bot to swim in water or walk on land. (Image Credit: Yale University)
Robots with similar abilities as an animal have been popping up for the past little while. For instance, we’ve seen animatronic dolphins and a snake sporting robotic legs, providing it with walking capabilities. Even then, Geckos also helped inspire a robotic gripper. Yale University researchers recently developed a cute Amphibious Robotic Turtle (ART), a turtle-inspired robot that can transform its limbs into flippers through an “adaptive morphogenesis” process.
“Terrestrial and aquatic turtles share similar bodies, with four limbs and a shell, but have distinctive limb shapes and gaits adapted for their specific environment,” said Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, the John J. Lee Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and principal investigator of the study. “Sea turtles have elongated flippers for swimming, whereas land turtles and tortoises have rounded legs for load bearing while walking.”
ART comes loaded with morphing limbs that adapt their shape, stiffness, and behavior based on the environment. Each morphing limb connected to a 3-motor shoulder joint contains an antagonistic pneumatic actuator pair with strain-limiting layers clinging onto thermoset polymers. Embedded heaters warm up and soften the polymers for shape-changing purposes whenever the bot moves into a different environment. In this case, ART’s limbs change into cylindrical legs to walk on land and morph into flippers for swimming. Switching between the flippers and limbs is a process the team calls “adaptive morphogenesis.”
Even though ART isn’t quick, it’s still more efficient than MIT’s bipedal robot. It also functions like Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne’s Cheetah Cub and Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Titan V-III. This land and water turtle robot could be used for shoreline ecosystem monitoring, diver support, and ocean farming. In addition, it can assist researchers in studies relating to the physics of locomotion in the complex surf zone where waves, currents, and turbidity make it difficult for robots to navigate.
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