The Robo-Salamander is an amphibious robot that can crawl, walk and swim.
"A robot is being used by a Franco-Swiss team to investigate how the first land animals on Earth might have walked. The bot looks a lot like a salamander; and the scientists can change the way it swims, slithers and crawls with commands sent wirelessly from a PC."
The idea is to study the way the robot moves in comparison with living aquatic and amphibious animals. The researchers hope to understand better how animals made the leap from sea to land.
The research team hopes "to decode perhaps some of what happened during evolution," Auke Jan Ijspeert, of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, told BBC News."
Amphibious Recreation
The Robo-Salamander Will Shed Light on How Animals Evolved to Walk on Land
Trend Themes
1. Amphibious Robotics - Opportunity for developing advanced robots that can navigate both land and water environments.
2. Evolutionary Robotics - Potential to study animal movements and apply that knowledge to robotic locomotion.
3. Bio-inspired Robotics - Opportunity to design robots based on the locomotion strategies of animals for enhanced adaptability.
Industry Implications
1. Robotics - Potential for developing innovative robotic systems that can perform amphibious tasks.
2. Biology - Opportunity for better understanding the evolution and locomotion of animals in different environments.
3. Research & Development - Possibility to apply the findings to various fields, such as prosthetics, rehabilitation, and search and rescue.