If you're a fan of insect-inspired robots, then you probably like creations such as RoboBee, VelociRoACH, and Harvard University's HAMR. Should the latter's scurrying around not be enough for you, though, it can now move across the water, sinking itself and walking beneath the surface on command.
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Needles – none of us like them. But researchers from Ohio State University think it doesn’t have to be this way. They’re drawing inspiration from the mosquito to make injections a less miserable experience.
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Chameleons change color via a layer of skin cells which contain nanocrystals. As the lizards stretch or relax their skin, the spacing between those crystals changes, altering the manner in which they reflect light. Now, scientists have designed a color-changing nanolaser that works the same way.
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It was just back in March that German electrical automation company Festo unveiled two of its latest robots inspired by animals – a crawling/rolling spider and a flying fox bat. Now, it's taken the wraps off BionicFinWave, which moves like a cuttlefish.
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You might remember RoboBee, an insect-sized robot that flies by flapping its wings. Unfortunately, though, it has to be hard-wired to a power source. Well, one of RoboBee's creators has now helped develop RoboFly, which flies without a tether.
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There are an ever-increasing number of wireless mobile devices transmitting and receiving data, even though there's only a limited amount of bandwidth available to them. In order to keep their signals from jamming one another, scientists have replicated a system used by a cave fish.
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The transparent sections of the glasswing butterfly's wings barely reflect any light, which is why we've previously heard about them inspiring glare-free device screens. Now, their antireflective quality has led to an improvement in a glaucoma-monitoring eye implant.
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Although we've seen robotic fish designed to unobtrusively study marine life, scientists more often use remote-operated vehicles with noisy propellers that scare animals. That could eventually change, however, thanks to the development of a totally silent, transparent, soft-bodied robotic eel.
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In a way, our options are pretty limited when it comes to finding our way around the ocean. But scientists are claiming a new breakthrough in the world of underwater navigation, taking inspiration from marine animals that use polarizing light in some clever ways.
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Festo, the German electrical automation company that previously brought us a robotic dragonfly, kangaroo and penguin, is back with a couple of new creations – a spider that can roll like a wheel, and a bat that flies by autopilot.
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