'Flipperbot' to provide turtle solution to sandcrawling

Presented today in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, Flipperbot has been designed to test how real-life organisms, such as seals, sea turtles and mudskippers use flippers and fins to move on surfaces such as sand.

The 19cm-long robot was built by Nicole Mazouchova, working in Professor Daniel Goldman’s Complex Rheology and Biomechanics (CRAB) Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Dr Paul Umbanhowar from Northwestern University.

It weighs 790g and crawls using two flipper-like front limbs, spanning 40cm. Each limb is driven by small servo motors and has a thin, lightweight flipper at its end. During the study the robot was tested on a 122cm-long bed of poppy seeds and was recorded using a high-speed digital camera.

The researchers believe that the improved understanding of flipper-based locomotion gained from their study could inspire the design of future multi-terrain robots that can swim and walk effectively using the same appendages.

Prof Daniel Goldman and his group have previously studied the high walking performance of hatchling sea turtles, and the goal of this new study was to use a robot to further understand the mechanics of flipper-based movement on land.