back to article Watch leggy ROBOT INSECT WALK on WATER before JUMPING OFF

Scientists have created a leggy microrobot that mimics the actions of a water strider. They wanted to replicate the movement of the semi-aquatic insects to try to have a better understanding of how they are able to jump from watery surfaces with the same amount of force and height as a leap from rigid ground. Boffins from …

  1. danR2

    ' "The resulting robotic insects ..." explained Harvard's Robert Wood, a co-author of a paper on the work published Friday in the journal Science.' --CNET

    _________

    Let's hope this entomologically challenged statement wasn't in a peer-review journal. This isn't a robot, and insects have six legs, not four.

    Oops, it was in... Science.

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      It's an amputee

      you insensitive clod.

      1. Martin Budden Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: It's an amputee

        Would an amputee clod be a clodhopper?

  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Very nice, but...

    1) Is it a robot? It rather looks like a device able to move 4 pieces of preformed wire ... in the same class as a stapler, which is not a robot.

    2) Why do today's videos always have that infuriating Hollywood-slice-of-life-comedy-style background music? One always expects being forced to watch a fat guy falling downstairs or a baby in a "cute" situation in the next second.

  3. Hollerith 1

    We saw it go up...

    ...but we did not see it land. I suspect this four-legged piece of metal has a distance to go before it will fool the resident water-striders.

    "Is that Nigel? Look at him jump!"

    "Oh. Sank like a stone. Can't be Nigel."

  4. Efros

    Now add

    a drop of Fairy Liquid and watch those suckers sink. :)

  5. Michael Habel

    So can this tech be scaled up into something usable, like Boats, or Ships?!

  6. harmjschoonhoven
    Thumb Up

    Doable

    The robotic insect produced by the engineers was able to exert up to 16 times its own body weight (68 milligram) on the water's surface without breaking through.

    Jeez, we only need a raft of 270x270 of these critter to walk on water (380x380 in the USA).

  7. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Pointless?

    On first reading, this reminds me rather of being able to fart Beethovens 5th Symphony through a keyhole. Very clever but ultimately a bit pointless.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Pointless?

      You've never read Viz have you? I can see this appearing in a Royal Loo complete with video soon!

  8. lukewarmdog

    Potential Uses

    "perhaps unsurprisingly given the resultant microrobot's potential uses"

    I am not seeing any potential uses here.

    Giving passing sailors a very small fright isn't going to win the war unless they can suddenly shoot them with a very small concealed gun... oh wait.. do they have very small concealed weapons?

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