Self Swimming Robot

Jack Hilton

Period B Engineering

May 17, 2018

Self Swimming Robot:

What is it?

Engineers at Caltech and ETH Zurich have created a soft robot that can propel itself through the water without having to rely on the use of a motors, servos, or power supply. In place of the tradition motor or power supply, this new robot uses a very unique, never before seen method to propel itself through the water. This method is simply the material that it is constructed from deforms as the water temperature changes. So the robot's materials will change and shift with the change in water temperature, allowing the robot to propel itself through water with just the material it is made from and no motor-like assistance. 

A Detailed Look:

The self propulsion system operates from flexible polymer strips. The strips curl when in cold water, and they stretch out when in warm water. The polymer strips are positioned in such a way that they trigger a switch on the robot's body and make it row forward, operating similarly to that of a traditional rowboat. The switch is made of an elastic material that repeatedly snaps from one position to another as the polymer pushes on it. The polymer strips can be modified and altered to produce different results. For example, a thicker polymer strip will take longer to warm up and activate the paddles than a thin strip. This ability to alter the robots materials in specific ways allows the robot to actually turn and move at different speeds. 

Why is this Important?

This new robot may sound silly and not seem important, but it could turn out to be a very critical and effective tool. According to the researchers at Caltech, future, more complex versions of the robot could actually prove to do tremendous things. For example, the researchers said the robot could contain chemical spills in the waters or deliver drugs with future models. Obviously, researchers and designers are far from this point, but it is interesting to see that technologies like this are being tested. This model is particular is nowhere near at the level to contain a chemical spill, however with more research and trials the scientists could eventually prevent events like oil spills from getting out of hand and minimize the damage that they cause to the environment. For now they have the self swimming robot that swims as long as the temperature is fluctuating, but soon enough the team will make another breakthrough and be saving our environment one step at a time. 

As we can see in this video oil spills cause a lot of damage and they are very difficult to clean up after. Oil spills such as this one and many others can be contained in the future so that the damage is not as extensive and thus the cleanup will also be easier.