If we had already caught our attention, the Kawasaki robot prototype now comes a new twist. A team of scientists from the Technological University of Southern China has presented a amphibious robotic dog capable of moving both by land and water with remarkable efficiency. The study, published in Bioinspiration and Biometrics by IOP Publishing, has been Inspired by the ability of mammals to move in both media.
Until now, amphibious robots were mainly inspired by reptiles or insects, but Using dog swimming capacity allows you to an easy transition between earth and water and overcome many of the challenges faced by the designs inspired by insects.
According to the authors, this robot feels the foundations for future applications in environmental research, military vehicles, rescue missions and more. To improve your aquatic mobility, The amphibious robotic dog has a single rowing mechanisminspired by the dog’s swimming movement. The careful engineering of its structure, which includes a precise balance of weight and float, guarantees stable and effective aquatic performance.
To reach this efficiency, the authors, led by Yunquan Li, They developed and tested three different stand styles. Two of them inspired by the “puppy” style, optimized for speed and propulsion. And a third, similar to trot, designed to improve water stability.
After an extensive experimentation, the rowing style of the puppy proved superior, reaching a maximum water speed of 0.576 kilometers per hour, while the style similar to the trot prioritized stability. Ashore, The amphibious robotic dog reaches speeds of 1.26 km/hwhich offers versatile mobility in amphibious environments.
“This innovation is a great advance in the design of robots inspired by nature – says LI Imitate the natural way of swimming of real dogs. The structure of double articulation legs and three ways of swimming different solve previous limitations, such as low swimming speed and a unrealistic gear planning, which makes the robot dog much more effective in water. ”