Left, engineers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have built a robot modeled on a sea turtle, shown here in a conceptual drawing, that is capable of underwater autonomous navigation. Right, the robot sea turtle prototype, shown here without its container, is scheduled to make its first dive later this month. (Source: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
Hi ttemple, You are correct in regards to autonomous. The robot can manuever without an ambilical cord of wires. Sensors along with software will guide the robot based on a set of rules allowing it to be used for specific tasks such as tracking oil slicks or other environmental conditions of interest to researchers. Thanks for another great robotics article Ann!
Are flippers more efficient than a propellor? Sea creatures use flippers because they are easier to evolve than a bearing mounted shaft, not because they are the better solution.
A device such as this would be semi-autonomous - it would be able to maintain bouyancy and evade obstacles and non-tech-savvy predators by itself, but it needs to be steered to its' target and told what to do when it gets there (either placing or removing limpet mines, I suppose)
When they say "Autonomous" in reference to robots, to what extent do they mean? I presume that even when they cut the thing loose to swim "autonomously", they still have the ability to take control. Is that the case?
Also, it would seem that autonomous behavior would have to be guided by some set of rules that give the robot some objectives or priorities as to what it is supposed to be doing. Is that the case, or is it just supposed to randomly swim around avoiding obstacles?
Great article. I would be interested to see how efficient each design is at different speeds. In other words, would the turtle design be more power efficient at lower speeds and the tuna design be more power efficient at higher speeds? I would also be curious to see the comparison of each design under different conditions.
Ann, this is great. The number of swimming robots you have described is amazing. This one looks like it could travel large distances, just like real sea turtles. If all these creatures were deployed, we might have to be careful about what we catch when fishing. I am also suprised by the origin of this one and the tuna. Switzerland is a land locked country.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
0 
