Mighty Morphin’ Turtle Robot Goes Amphibious by Shifting Leg Shape

The new Transforming Turtle Robot can explore dangerous areas where land and sea meet. This could lead to future machines navigating complex real-world situations.

An amphibious robotic turtle (ART), which combines the best locomotion features of sea-swimming and land-walking turtles, has recently Nature, can transform limbs from turtle-like flippers to turtle-like feet. “Most amphibious robots use dedicated propulsion systems in their respective environments,” says senior author Rebecca Kramer Bottilio, a roboticist at Yale University. “Our system adapts one unified propulsion mechanism to both environments. It has four limbs, which move between a flipper state for underwater locomotion and a leg state for land locomotion. You can transition with

Each morphing rim is surrounded by a composite polymer material that is malleable when hot and hard when cold. Built-in copper heaters warm and soften the outer material to reshape the limbs. The soft robotic “muscles” underneath then expand or contract, shifting the flattened flippers into rounded legs and vice versa. Finally, the polymer is allowed to cool and harden around the new shape for 1-2 minutes. Soft robotic limbs are attached to more traditional “hard” robotic shoulder joints. This joint has three electronic motors built into him, allowing ART to not only ‘crawl’ or ‘creep’ on land, but ‘paddle’ or ‘flap’ in water. These joints are connected to a modular chassis and sealed PVC tubing protects the robot’s electronics from water. A 3D-printed “shell” gives the robot a streamlined shape and space to hold air or ballast and adjust buoyancy.

Tønnes Nygaard, a robotics engineer at Oslo Metropolitan University, says integrating both soft and traditional robotics will give ART transformative capabilities. “Very strict and strict mode of movement [are] It is necessary when using conventional robotics technology,” he adds. “But now, with technology like robotics, he might be able to do something a little more fluid.”

Such adaptive technology will ultimately help robots trek across many different surfaces and environments found in the real world without having to carry additional propulsion systems that can reduce robot locomotion efficiency. There is a possibility. Kramer-Bottiglio’s team found that ART consumes about the same amount of energy as a robot he built for one environment.

Robotic turtles have yet to reach their goal. Current prototypes still require tethers to provide power and communication, and their movements are slow and clumsy. working for “I’m really excited to see how far they’ve come,” he said. “And I’m very curious what will come out of this group in a few years.”