A water walking robot inspired by water strider

Abstract

Recent studies on water striders have revealed the mechanism of their floating and walking on water. By fast swinging their middle legs backward and striking the water, water striders get the driving force to move forward. This paper introduces a new water walking robot mimicking the rowing locomotion of water strider. The robot weighs 10 g and utilizes superhydrophobic nickel foam sheets as supporting legs and a spring-based actuating mechanism. Motion and force analysis for the supporting legs and the spring-based actuating mechanism were made and corresponding mechanics analysis models were built, based on which the simulation analysis of the robot was carried out. The robot can move over a distance of 30 cm per stroke with an average speed of 30 cm/s. This robot not only can help us better understand the mechanism of water strider rowing on water, but also can be developed for many applications in water quality monitoring, aquatic exploration, search and rescue on water, etc. in the future.