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Subscribe to RSSA video from the American Chemical Society shows the water-walking robot in action.
It weighs about as much as about 390 water striders, but this leggy robot can skitter across water just like the real deal.
Scientists built the robot after studying the way real water striders scuttled across the surface of water. Some years ago, a different group of researchers zoomed in on the water strider legs and found that they had leg hairs that trapped air, forming tiny air cushions. Together with the legs' waxiness, this feature makes the water strider legs behave more oars when they hit the surface of the water, keeping the bug afloat.
The design of the tiny robot and its legs is similar. The legs of the robots have air-trapping nanostructures made of copper, giving the 'bot limbs some extra lift in water. Xinbin Zhang, who published a paper describing the walking waterproof wonder in the journal Applied Materials and Interfaces, wrote that "the robot stands effortlessly on its slim supporting legs."
The water-walking robot is powered by a motor worn on its "body," which is wired to an external control board. Ten "walking" legs support the robot, and the two other legs are connected to motors on its body. When either one of the two motors was turned off, the robot turned to the left or right.
The current model doesn't quite match the insects in agility, but Zhang and his colleagues write that better skating versions of this waterproof robot could find application as water pollution surveyors and monitors.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes about science and technology at msnbc.com. Find her on Twitter or Google+, and join our conversation on the Cosmic Log Facebook page.
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Am I the only one is counting only ten legs - not twelve?
Maybe the 2 coiled looking pieces in the middle count as legs? They look as if they are repelling the water as well.
JPeyton76, you are correct. Those are the two motor legs mentioned in the item.
Our tax dollars at work again?
Only if you live in China.
indirectly, I suppose that's a yes...still neat little critter, the monitoring idea is a great idea, but if i gather the power is off board...get that solved (I always felt mitochrondia was a form of fusion energy cell, though it is not in conventional terms).....right now I am overly suspicious the most populus communist run country on earth, large scaled up versions could be exploited in other ways if they had the inclination. I cannot immediatly think of any natural thing that is large and can use the h2o surface tension effect, but a quick jaunt into the sf realm and a 12 or 120 foot version, although not a game changer, would be formidable if cheap enough.
Davidmg, almost as many Chinese kids at the University of Chicago than American kids.
What's your point? The Universities involved in the research are ones in China. Hence the chinese paid for it.
David, what I think he is getting at is that they probably received their education here and then went back to China to work. Hence, using our education system to benefit China. I'm not sure how that applies to taxes though. Perhaps Devil's son can enlighten us?
Thanks for turning this into something about America- how very narcissistic of you. Anyway, I'm struggling to find what this projecgt offers in way of practivcal applications. There's this really neat thing called a boat that does the same thing. It seems liek the wheel is being reinvented here. Perhaps I'm missing something- I never claied toba as smart as these water spider dudes. heheh.
Reminds me of the spiders in Tron.
I agree with "proud..." What is this for? Who cares whose $$ it is and what education system was used, either way someone could have been using their time for a better reason and cause.
4 million dollars of taxpayer funds granted to do this research!