RoboTerp: A Compliance Assisted Quadrupedal Amphibious Robot (UMD Robotics)

This video shows RoboTerp, a quadrupedal amphibious robot, in which the same legs that achieve locomotion on land using one gait, also provide propulsion in water by switching to a different gait. The central idea hinges on a passive compliance attached to the lower leg that enables it to behave like a valve during movement in water. The direction of this valve-like mechanism is aligned such that rhythmic oscillations of the legs generate a net thrust that propels the robot forward in water. By design, this oscillatory leg movement achieves splash-free swimming, and thereby overcomes the shortcomings of most previous wheel-leg based designs, in which rotational movement
causes water splashing that leads to significant turbulence in the robot surroundings.
The music used in this video, "Waking Up (Instrumental)" by Dexter Britain, is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License. You can reach the author at his website, www.dexterbritain.co.uk .
The Maryland Robotics Center is an interdisciplinary research center housed in the Institute for Systems Research (link is external) within the A. James Clark School of Engineering (link is external). The mission of the center is to advance robotic systems, underlying component technologies, and applications of robotics through research and educational programs that are interdisciplinary in nature and based on a systems approach.
robotics.umd.edu

[@kungfuwifey1]

Another win for Maryland engineering! This is fantastic.

[@mjkuhlman2000]

Looks like UMD finally has it's first robotic mascot!

[@bhaskarkns877]

waaw! what a brainstorming idea...the combination of flaps and legs is very interesting!! hope to see lot more designs like RoboTerp in future. Good luck

[@andrewvogel7536]

It may seem like that at first, but check at 0:27. There you can see the purpose of the compliant flaps: the bending is constrained in one direction but not in the other, which means that water is allowed to flow through the legs one way and not the other. This lets the legs act like valves.

[@stormynite6]

Very creative work of the team. Congrats !!

[@A8P1R89]

Very Cool! Great accomplishment in robotics while still representing the University.

[@brual2789]

Great work Andrew...Its great to have robot for Maryland Terrapin..!!

[@GauravPandeyIISc]

Awesome robot. Wonderful work !!

[@ItsEricAZ]

Clever work!

[@sagar353]

Nice Work Andrew.

[@bslraju]

super cool robot !!

[@kanaksundar4990]

Wonderful combination of gaits, innovative work…

[@bharanichandra]

Excellent one, congrats for this wonderful work.

[@gsrim]

Great, I was surprised to see it. Keep it for the great work.

[@ljr]

This is great stuff!! How fast does it move in the water?

[@Rokreder]

Somehow reminds me of a turtle :) Awesome stuff :D

[@sandhyanite]

Awesome emulation of buses of Duck Tour in Boston.
Can it change the direction too?

[@jeetendrag10acc2]

Anyone else think humans cannot reach the prototyping ability of nature?That its better to focus on genetic algorithm performance validation systems to really achieve fluid efficient gaits and systems?i appreciate all the effort ,dont get me wrong, but all robots i see clealry are inefficient ,and are closer to jerky toys than to real useful platforms with smooth,efficeint,shockless gaits....

[@LosEdgesBikeCo]

disappointment to see engineering getting to this level...