Robots and tiny boats could soon move on water like how beetle larvae do. This new propulsion system is meant for small crafts used for monitoring water quality in oceans and other large bodies of water. Mimicking the movements of beetle larvae was the idea of Sung Kwon Cho from Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering.
The resulting system has no moving parts and hence is low-powered, requires little maintenance and is efficient. Beetle larvae can rest without sinking at the surface of the water because of the tension; to move, it bends its body downwards and the forward pull propels its movement. The same mechanism was applied to the Pitt propulsion system, with the body bending replaced by an electric pulse.
For videos of the tiny boat using the larvae-inspired propeller, check out PhysOrg.
One of medicine’s future goals is to develop methods and devices to be used for non-invasive keyhole surgeries. Designers have borrowed numerous elements from nature to make prototypes of tools such as snake-like robots before. Another one that stemmed from biomimicry is a wasp-like probe that is theorized to make keyhole surgeries safer. Apparently, female wood wasps of the Siricidae family have two dovetailed shafts with backwards-facing teeth that they use to deposit eggs into pine trees. The wasp bores into the wood by oscillating the shafts back and forth, with the teeth holding the needle-like body part in place within the wood.
