The mermaid robot appeared on the cover of Nature

Ever wanted to jump into the water like a mermaid and your legs instantly turn into flippers? Now, researchers at Yale University have actually created such a robot, which has been featured on the cover of Nature as "Turtle eclipsed."

Well, it can be seen from the appearance that the scientists were inspired by water turtles and tortoises, and now combine them into one. The limbs of the robot on the ground walk normally like tortoises. After entering the water, its legs will turn into flippers and march smoothly. Nature's chief physical science editor describes this morphological change as evolution on demand.

In the past, the design strategies of mainstream robots tended to have immutable structures and behaviors, resulting in the inability of the system to adapt to different environments. Therefore, in order to achieve a specific multi-environmental movement that can traverse the transition zone between land, aquatic and intermediate, the design strategy given by the researchers is adaptive morphological change.

In short, the shape and behavior of the robot are realized through a unified structure and drive system. This is also the biggest difference between this robot and other amphibious robots. Other robots often add multiple propulsion mechanisms and use different propulsion mechanisms in each environment, resulting in energy inefficiency.

Specifically, it blends traditional rigid components and soft materials to radically enhance the shape of its limbs and alter its gait for movement in multiple environments. The entire body consists of four subsystems: chassis, shell, shoulder joints, and deforming limbs.

Needless to say, the chassis is responsible for accommodating electronic devices. While the shell provides protection, it can also be used for buoyancy adjustment. And the real heroes to complete a series of gait changes are shoulder joints and deformed limbs. The shoulder joint movement mechanism has three degrees of automation, and the transgenic limb consists of two parts, a pneumatic actuator on the top and rigid material that changes with temperature on the bottom.

When the embedded heater heats up to soften the material and inflate the limb, the cross-sectional area, and stiffness of the limb change. In this way, its limbs can have both cylindrical shapes for walking on land and flat fin shapes for swimming.

The scientists then implemented the two most stable gaits underwater and on land (an environment represented by tiles, concrete, and granite). 

In addition, scientists have also designed a transition route from terrestrial to aquatic. It turned out that it was swimming before it was completely submerged in shallow water.

In addition, the scientists compared it with other terrestrial aquatic animals and robots, and for a single environment, the performance of ART was similar to the state-of-the-art single-modality - aquatic or terrestrial robots, and even exceeded in some cases. The latter, and also more than some animals. (dog head)

The scientists say there are many potential applications for the robot, such as ecosystem monitoring along coastlines, diver support, and marine farming. In the field of learning and research, robots can also help researchers study the physics of motion in complex surfing areas and other environmental transition areas.

The scientists say there are many potential applications for the robot, such as ecosystem monitoring along coastlines, diver support, and marine farming. In the field of learning and research, robots can also help researchers study the physics of motion in complex surfing areas and other environmental transition areas.