This new robot swims more than twice as fast, has bendable limbs, and features more powerful microcontrollers that enable distributed computation of our spinal cord neural network models and simulation of muscle properties. It is one of the few robots, if not the only one, that can swim, crawl, and walk.

Its modular design

Quickly change its morphology (e.g. lengthen it, add or remove legs, etc.). Furthermore, its modularity means that each module has its own microcontroller, battery and motors, and so we can split the robot into different parts and it would still work. This can have interesting implications in terms of robustness against damage. For example, the robot could lose parts of its body and still be able to walk

The main purpose of this robot

To serve as a scientific tool to test hypotheses about the neural circuits underlying locomotion in the spinal cord of vertebrate animals. To this end, we are working with neurobiologists, in particular Professor Jean-Marie Cabelguen from the University of Bordeaux, and establishing models of the central pattern generators that are known to control locomotion in vertebrate animals. These sophisticated circuits can produce complex locomotor patterns while receiving only simple control signals from higher parts of the brain.
A second goal of the robot is to pave the way for amphibious service robots that could be used for inspection tasks or for search and rescue missions (e.g. after an earthquake, flood or mudslide).