The challenge: two worlds at once

Water is one thousand times denser than air. Yet gulls and puffins plunge into the sea, swim underwater, and leap back into the air to fly away seamlessly.

Meet the flapping-wing robot

Engineers at MIT and EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland designed a flapping-wing aerial-aquatic vehicle, or FAAV, weighing less than three hundred grams. It has flexible wings coated with hydrophobic nanoparticles and a motorized steerable tail.

Finding the right balance

A team led by Raphael Zufferey, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, tested combinations of wing size, flapping frequency, and tail angle.

The dream for ocean science

Zufferey envisions oceanographers launching the robot from a boat or shore to fly close to areas of interest, dive to take measurements or collect samples, and fly back to deliver data at a fraction of…

“Our dream vision is for oceanographers, marine biologists, and members of coastal communities to launch this robot from a boat, or from shore, and it would fly close to the area of interest, such as an iceberg or a port facility, or over a pod of whales.”

What comes next

Researchers are designing wings that can turn as well as flap and will test the robot in turbulent conditions like choppy waters and wind before deploying it to answer questions in ocean science.

“One of the major challenges in ocean science is collecting data both frequently and across many locations, which is something this robot could do in the future.”

Frequent data collection at scale

Zufferey says the robot could be sent out not just every week but every hour, flying out at high speeds, diving in, flying back, delivering data, and returning multiple times.

“You could send this out not just every week, but every hour. It could fly out at high speeds, dive in, fly back, deliver its data, and go back out, multiple times.”