A team of Scientists from Seoul National University, Harvard's Wyss Intstitute for BIologically Inspired Engineering, and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has uncovered an innovative robotic insect that can leap off the water's surface. In doing so, they have revealed new understandings into the natural mechanics that allow water striders to jump from firm ground or stable water with the same amount of power and height. The work is stated in the July 31 issue of Science.
The insect-like robot was inspired by the movement of Water Striders. Water Striders are known for its extreme maneuvers like walking and jumping on water surfaces.
The researchers needed to make use of the complex natural structure of a Water Strider. This mosquito-like insects have legs with slightly curved tips and uses rotational leg movement to help its take off from the water surface. The movement of the Water Striders was carefully watched and observed by Ho-Young Kim who is a Professor in SNU's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Director of SNU's Micro Fluid Mechanics Lab. Kim, a former Wyss Institute Visiting Scholar, worked with the study's co-first author Eunjin Yang, a graduate researcher at SNU's Micro Fluid Mechanics Lab.
"(The water) surface needs to be pressed at the right speed for an adequate amount of time, up to a certain depth, in order to achieve jumping," said the study's co-senior author Kyu Jin Cho, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Director of the Biorobotics Laboratory at SNU. "The water strider is capable of doing all these things flawlessly."
The body of the insect was build using a pop-up manufacturing and its movements are made by taking advantage of the Torque Reversal Catapult Mechanism. Pop-up manufacturing is being used in pop-up or 3D books, while the Torque Reversal Catapult Mechanism was inspired by how the flea moves.
The robotic insect was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, Bio-Mimetic Robot Research Center funding from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
