3D sonar-enabled bionic penguins. Enough said. Not only is their an underwater version….but who said penguins can’t fly? That’s right– there is a helium-filled air version as well. The penguins were designed by Festo, the same company that brought you robo-jellies.
An investment of over $13 million gives you…roboctopus! Designed to have no solid skeleton, it would be the world’s first completely soft robot; and it’s silicone arms will work the same way an octopus’ tencacles do. A roboctopus would be able to get into the nooks and crannies that traditional ROVs can’t reach.
Researchers from Essex University in the United Kingdom developed a robotic fish, to be launched off the waters of northern Spain in 2011. The $29,000 robot fish is a mini-lab, equipped with chemical sensors to detect potentially harmful pollutants in the water, as well an internal tracking system to avoid collisions, and wi-fi to beam back data to the researchers. A bit of perspective? This fish is 5 feet long…about the size of a seal!
Hat tip to Oceans 4Ever for their post on Robo-fiche, the beginning of my robotic sea-critter journey.
Lastly…this squid-robot was just far too cool to not include:
