Pleurobot, salamander-like robot, Biorobotics Laboratory, Lausanne, Switzerland

The Pleurobot is a bioinspired robot being developed by the BioRob at EPFL and NCCR Robotics. Taking it’s cues from the salamander, the Pleurobot is a walking robot that can change its gait to help it to navigate uneven terrain, and is currently learning to swim. Watch the video to see the researchers discuss what they are doing with the Pleurobot and how they hope to improve it in future.

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We meet Pleurobot, a Salamander-like robot that can both walk on land and swim in the water (with a wetsuit!) Kishore, our new science correspondent, chats with professor Auke Ijspeert of the EPFL about how Pluerobot's movements were programmed and how biorobotics engineers studied the physiology of salamanders in making this robot.

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Roboticist Auke Ijspeert designs biorobots, machines modeled after real animals that are capable of handling complex terrain and would appear at home in the pages of a sci-fi novel. The process of creating these robots leads to better automata that can be used for fieldwork, service, and search and rescue. But these robots don't just mimic the natural world — they help us understand our own biology better, unlocking previously unknown secrets of the spinal cord.

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Based on X-ray videos, EPFL scientists have built a new robot that mimics how salamanders walk and swim to unprecedented detail: a step towards understanding the evolution of vertebrate locomotion.

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This amazing robot is helping scientists study this amphibian.

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