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AQUA2 Underwater Robot With Flippers
The AQUA2 underwater robot uses six independently controlled fins to maneuver. It acts as a underwater sensor platform.
(AQUA2 underwaer robot)
Dr. Gregory Dudek and PhD candidates Junaed Sattar and Anqi Xu of Mcgill University's school of computer science in Montreal, Canada, have developed AQUA2, a robot which can do what no other robot can do: move about on land as well as swim and dive in the water.Showcased during the recent G8/G20 summit's international media centre, AQUA2 is part of the aqua project which explores the science and technologies for the interpretation of underwater video footage, the identification of underwater features, human-robot interaction, the modelling of 3D scenes using vision and acoustics, vehicle control, position estimation and mechanical design.
The robot has been tested to a depth of 120 feet, and has an intended operating range from the shoreline to 100 feet.
It's role is similar to that of the Mitsubishi Robot Turbot from Michael Swanwick's 2002 story Slow Life.
Black liquid flashed past the turbot’s infrared eyes. Straight away from the shore it swam, seeing nothing but flecks of paraffin, ice, and other suspended particulates as they loomed up before it and were swept away in the violence of its wake. A hundred meters out, it bounced a pulse of radar off the sea floor, then dove, seeking the depths...Snazzy Japanese cybernetics took in a minute sample of the ammonia-water, fed it through a deftly constructed internal laboratory, and excreted the waste products behind it.
"We’re at twenty meters now," Consuelo said. "Time to collect a second sample."
The turbot was equipped to run hundreds of on-the-spot analyses.
See also this similar real-world device - Robot Turtle Madeline.
Via Designboom.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/18/2010)
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