Tiny Fans on the Feet of Water Bugs Could Lead to Energy Efficient, Mini Robots

A new study explains how tiny water bugs use fan-like propellers to zip across streams at speeds up to 120 body lengths per second. The researchers then created a similar fan structure and used it to propel and maneuver an insect-sized robot.

The discovery offers new possibilities for designing small machines that could operate during floods or other challenging situations.

Instead of relying on their muscles, the insects about the size of a grain of rice use the water’s surface tension and elastic forces to morph the ribbon-shaped fans on the end of their legs to slice the water surface and change directions. 

Once they understood the mechanism, the team built a self-deployable, one-milligram fan and installed it into an insect-sized robot capable of accelerating, braking, and maneuvering right and left.

The study is featured on the cover of the journal Science. 

Read the entire story and see the robot in action on the College of Engineering website.