Robot Strider walks on water and, eventually, land

We know you're still reeling from the awesomeness that is the robotic panda and other more aquatically-inclined robots we've seen in the past, but the Strider is actually as useful as it is impressive. From what we gather from a trail of liberally translated links is that this radio-controlled bot, which is being developed at Japan's Chuo University, uses 6 legs to propel itself across the water like the ones MIT and Carnegie Mellon have been developing for a while. The outer legs are made of buoyant resin to keep it afloat, while the middle legs provide the driving force. Eventually the developers are hoping it will be able to move flawlessly from the water onto land, making it a valuable tool for aquatic rescues, especially when equipped with a camera. Even if it never gets that far, the videos on the source link suggest it would make a pretty killer pool toy.

[Via Robot Watch]

[strider_mt2k @ Jun 16th 2006 11:35AM]

That's pretty cool!

Aquatic battlebots anyone?

[Brandon @ Jun 16th 2006 12:30PM]

There also has been some water strider work done at Columbia.

http://www.columbia.edu/~amh2003/

The subtle but important distinction to make between the CMU, MIT, and Columbia striders v. the Chuo strider is that the first three are supported primarily by surface tension. Having buoyant feet does allow you to support more mass (for electronics, actuators, power, and such), but at the expense of drag, and, not to mention, no longer being a true strider.

Theoretically, you can support quite a bit of weight on the water via surface tension. However, as contact length increases so does drag, so the legs of a robotic or real strider can only be so long before drag takes over and the strider can’t move by its own force. For reference, the largest real water strider weighs up to 1g and has a total leg length of 20cm. The hydrophobic coating on the legs also has alot to do with the weight that can be supported.

CMU has a cool concept for a fully autonomous "true" water strider using piezo actuators. Columbia has demonstrated a passively controlled autonomous solar powered water strider (see above link).

http://www.me.cmu.edu/faculty1/sitti/nano/projects/waterstrider/

[Greg Baz @ Jun 16th 2006 12:38PM]

Ummm...anything that is designed to float on the water brobubly shouldnt have exposed electronic circuts.

Ok no invasion of the killer water stridor robots...quick splash water on them.

[mark @ Jun 16th 2006 1:20PM]

"Ummm...anything that is designed to float on the water brobubly shouldnt have exposed electronic circuts.

Ok no invasion of the killer water stridor robots...quick splash water on them."

Fortunately, I don't think the robots are planning an invasion anytime soon...

[Cypheros @ Jun 16th 2006 2:28PM]

I, for one, welcome our new aquatic stridor-bot overlords.

[andrew k. from AZ @ Jun 16th 2006 3:41PM]

Grrrr fake strider. That thing is silly. Why not just make a hovercraft, which would probably be much faster? Or perhaps a swamp-boat? The ungainly floats under that thing's legs just look dumb.

[Dolores Leaks @ Jun 16th 2006 4:04PM]

What will they think of next

[Dolores Leaks @ Jun 16th 2006 4:07PM]

True I welcome the fellow too, it does seem dangerous for this machinery to be exposed to water. What do we as humans have left to do as far as mechanis are concerned.

[LongshotX @ Jun 16th 2006 5:13PM]

This is so pointless. The future of man made life is not in robotics it's in DNA. DNA has proven to be far more capable at storing data and adapting than even the largest hard disks. Nature is more effiecient in everything it does. Birds have a light weight yet sturdy skeleton that allows them to fly with very little energy expenditure. Planes on the other hand use expensive fuel to get moving and heavy frames. I guess I'm rambling on but the future rests in organics not robotics.

[Matthew @ Jun 16th 2006 9:08PM]

Wouldn't it be fun if a small robot could dance on water.

[Spider Tactics @ Jun 17th 2006 10:55PM]

Kinda' like Jesus, but made by a man.