US company Pliant Energy Systems has turned one of its green energy technologies into a propulsion system for a swimming robot capable of exploring land and sea.
The Velox robot can move through water as well as over sand, pebbles, snow, ice and other solid ground, completing tasks that robots designed purely for either land or sea would be unsuited for.
Velox's versatility is due to its undulating soft fins, which sit on either side of Velox and move in a hyperbolic pattern reminiscent of a stingray or a millipede.
Pliant Energy originally developed the fins as a system for generating electricity from rivers. It wanted a shape that wouldn't become entangled with debris and or be damaged by bumping up against heavy objects like tree trunks.
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