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MIT Robot Walks On Water

Posted by timothy on from the just-not-evenly-distributed dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at MIT have solved the mystery of how water striders propel themselves across water surfaces and in the process have created a robot called Robostrider that mimics the behavior. With cool stuff like this, it's no wonder MIT is number one in engineering."

4 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. Dupe by Saeger · · Score: 5, Informative
    This water strider story was posted two weeks ago, but because the way it was worded this time, the focus of the posts will probably be on robots (and dupe flaming) rather than the Christian Science Monitor being remarkably unbiased. :)

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  2. Re:Case of the Mondays by Saeger · · Score: 5, Informative
    Actually, it did. The 2nd link talked about the MIT strider bots.

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    Power to the Peaceful
  3. Re:Eh?? by dollargonzo · · Score: 4, Informative

    it's no mystery as to how they stay afloat. the big question was how they propel themselves

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  4. Re:Eh?? by thelen · · Score: 4, Informative

    The question is about propulsion, not weight-to-surface tension ratios sufficient for flotation. This research gives a better explanation of the mechanism by which the water skimmers move with such great efficiency (namely by created subsurface vortices with their middle pair of legs) and puts to rest the notion that it is attributable to the waves themselves created by a rowing action.