Robots have the potential to assist and complement humans in the study and exploration of extreme and hostile environments. For example, valuable scientific data have been collected with the aid of propeller-driven autonomous and remotely operated vehicles in underwater operations. However, because of their nature as swimmers, such robots are limited when closer interaction with the environment is required. Here, we report a bioinspired underwater legged robot, called SILVER2, that implements locomotion modalities inspired by benthic animals (organisms that harness the interaction with the seabed to move; for example, octopi and crabs). Our robot can traverse irregular terrains, interact delicately with the environment, approach targets safely and precisely, and hold position passively and silently. The capabilities of our robot were validated through a series of field missions in real sea conditions in a depth range between 0.5 and 12 meters.

No abstract

The article presents a novel flapping wing mechanism for Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) inspired by one of the most efficient flyers of the aerial world, the Common swift ( Apus apus). The flight characteristics such as wing beat frequency, wing beat amplitude, and fore and aft movements, as well as wing rotation of the bird at a flight speed 8 m /s, were studied. The common swift rotates its hand wing keeping the pitch of the arm wing constant during the entire wingbeat cycle. The hand wing undergoes forward rotation during the downstroke and backward rotation during the upstroke. This complex wing kinematics enables swift to generate various unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms. Using the geometric and kinematic details, a flapping wing mechanism that emulates the wing kinematics of the bird was designed. The flapping wing mechanism based on the epicyclic ellipsograph mechanism presented herein integrates flapping motion, fore and aft motion, and selective wing rotation. Importantly, this fully constrained mechanism allows performing all the key kinematic motions of the common swift with a single actuator. A kinematic model of the mechanism is presented to calculate the design parameters based on the scale of the MAV. Kinematic simulation of the mechanism is also presented to verify the design.