Researchers have come up with an innovative approach to building deformable underwater robots using simple repeating substructures. The team has demonstrated the new system in two different example configurations, one like an eel, pictured here in the MIT tow tank. Credits : Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
Researchers have come up with an innovative approach to building deformable underwater robots using simple repeating substructures. The team has demonstrated the new system in two different example configurations, one like an eel, pictured here in the MIT tow tank. Credits : Credit: Courtesy of the researchers The system's simple repeating elements can assemble into swimming forms ranging from eel-like to wing-shaped. Underwater structures that can change their shapes dynamically, the way fish do, push through water much more efficiently than conventional rigid hulls. But constructing deformable devices that can change the curve of their body shapes while maintaining a smooth profile is a long and difficult process. MIT's RoboTuna , for example, was composed of about 3,000 different parts and took about two years to design and build. Now, researchers at MIT and their colleagues - including one from the original RoboTuna team - have come up with an innovative approach to building deformable underwater robots, using simple repeating substructures instead of unique components.
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