Watch This Fish-Inspired Drone Swim, Fly, and Hitchhike
We have drones that can swim, fly, and even dance. Now, a team of researchers have created a drone that can do all those things at once… well, maybe not dance.
Engineers at Beihang University in Beijing, China have created a drone that’s capable of swimming underwater before taking to the skies. In a paper published in the journal Science Robotics on Thursday, researchers claim that the robot’s innovative propeller design allows it to switch from an underwater to an aerial drone in less than a second. Since it’s such an incredibly versatile robot, it has a lot of potential for a wide range of aerial and aquatic research.
The drone also has a suction disc attached that’s inspired by the remora fish, a species known for hitching rides on whales and sharks by latching themselves to the larger sea creatures. The mechanism allows the robot to attach itself to a moving host and thereby consume 19 times less energy than it would if it were powering itself.
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