Swimming Robots? (NSERC)

Swimming Robots?

Six-legged style

June 30, 2010 – The world’s attention was on Toronto for the G8 and G20 meetings last week, offering an unprecedented opportunity to showcase Canadian achievements. To underscore this country’s high-tech economy, the Government of Canada invited a select group of innovators, including a McGill University robotics team led by Gregory Dudek.

Accompanied by doctoral students Junaed Sattar and Anqi Xu, Dr. Dudek demonstrated the talents of the AQUA2 robot, the only one of its kind in the world.

The six-legged AQUA2 can do what no other robot can do: walk around on land, swim on the surface and dive down to walk on the bottom of a body of water. Where other robots use thrusters, this robot swims by using its legs. A variety of sensors allow it to estimate its position and navigate.

AQUA2 has gone through several versions, each one more compact and versatile than the last. Custom electronics enable it to gather and transmit data at high speeds.

“I was thrilled to have this opportunity to tell the world’s journalists about my work,” said Dr. Dudek. “Our robot has multiple uses in growth areas, such as environmental protection, infrastructure management and even security, and it’s great that the journalists are fascinated to learn more about concept-to-market research at McGill.”

Mr. Sattar noted, “The robot can also be controlled, even underwater, via a gesture-based interface, making it particularly easy to use.”

“Everybody loves a robot!” added Mr. Xu.

In addition to the development of amphibious and underwater robots, Dr. Dudek’s research focuses on sensing for robots, including looking for solutions to the complex problem of creating a robot capable of knowing where it is, accurately navigating around obstacles and detecting interesting objects.