Robotic Insect Can Jump on Water Like Water Striders

Posted on August 1, 2015

Scientists often look to insects for ideas for robot design. The latest robot designed by researchers from Seoul National University (SNU) and Harvard was inspired by water striders, which are capable of skimming along the surface of water and using water to launch themselves into the air. A water jumping robot is pictured next to a water strider insect in the photograph above.

Kyu-Jin Cho, associate professor and director of the Biorobotics Laboratory at SNU, says in a statement, "Water's surface needs to be pressed at the right speed for an adequate amount of time, up to a certain depth, in order to achieve jumping. The water strider is capable of doing all these things flawlessly."

The researchers wanted a robot that could use the surface of the water for jumping. They found that the best way to jump off water is to maintain leg contact with the water for as long as possible. The robotic insect built by the team can exert up to 16 times its own body weight on the water's surface without having its legs break through. It was built using a torque-reversal catapult mechanism inspired by the jump of a flea.

Harvard engineers used a method called pop-up manufacturing to build the body of the robot. This is similar to the foldable components used to make structures that pop-up in pop-up books.

Take a look:

Robert Wood, a co-author on the study and founder of the Harvard Microrobotics Lab, says, "The resulting robotic insects can achieve the same momentum and height that could be generated during a rapid jump on firm ground - but instead can do so on water - by spreading out the jumping thrust over a longer amount of time and in sustaining prolonged contact with the water's surface."

The research paper was published here in the journal, Science.

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