Amphibious

If microbes such as toxic cyanobacteria are present in water bodies, then the sooner that health authorities know, the better. The prototype Pelican drone is designed with that in mind, as it can autonomously perform on-location water analyses.

​Back in 2013, we heard about an all-terrain walking robot known as RHex. Designed in a collaboration between McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania, it used six flipper-like legs to scamper around. Now, its successor is taking to the briny depths.

It can be hard to picture a living creature from dusty bones and old footprints, but now that might require a little less imagination. Researchers at EPFL and the Humboldt University of Berlin have built a robot to figure out just how a 300-million year-old ancestor of ours might have moved around.

​We’ve seen quite a few interesting robot designs over the years that allow adventurous machines to negotiate difficult terrain, but few with the distinct style of the Velox robot from New York engineering firm Pliant Energy Systems.

​Ordinarily, fixed-wing mapping drones either just perform a traditional landing on the ground, or they parachute down to it. However, what if they're being used over the water? Well, that's where Aeromao's new Aeromapper Talon Amphibious drone comes in.

​Wouldn't it be neat if there were a boat with three retractable wheels that allowed it to get in and out of the water on its own? Well there is, and it's made by New Zealand-based Sealegs. Now, the company has unveiled a new electric-drive model, the Electric E4.

​If you're looking for a quadcopter that can land on the water's surface to shoot underwater video – well, that would be Urban Drones' Splash Drone. Now, the company has joined forces with tech firm SwellPro to create the Spry drone, which can actually make short "flights" beneath the surface.

A year and a half after accepting the first prototypes, the US Marine Corps has awarded BAE Systems and its partner Iveco Defence Vehicles a US$198 million contract to deliver the first 30 of the Corps' next-generation Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACV).

The Iguana amphibious seven-seat taxi​ incorporates the signature retractable caterpillar tracks, at the same time as adding an adjustable retractable hardtop and shock-mitigating seats​ to complete the most civilized amphibious vehicle on the planet.

A multi-millionaire man-child, a raging obsession with performance cars and racing, a tall volcano, a gruelling desert race, a ridiculous round-the-world amphibious jaunt, a nasty go-anywhere off-roader and a pinch of Steve McQueen … This has got to be a story worth following.

This wacky concept vehicle from Geneva looks kind of cool, in a KTM X-Bow kind of way, and demonstrates how electric drivetrains could make multi-mode vehicles much easier to build. We've got to be honest, though, we've got no idea how it's supposed to work.

Scientists have now sequenced the genome of the Mexican axolotl, and have identified a few key genes hidden amongst its extremely complex genetic blueprint that shed some light on its remarkable regeneration capabilities.