Sepios - Swimmers swim by 'fins', inspired by squid

A group of technical students at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, developed a robot with curly fins that allowed it to move back and forth, rotate or rotate. suspended in water.

The robot, called Sepios , is equipped with four "fins" , each fins mounted on a system of nine paddles with a 270 degree angle of rotation and actuated by a servo motor. These fins connect to the body of an airbag that allows the robot to maintain different depths by adjusting the airbag's buoyancy.

The robot body is also equipped with a direct-line camera, water pressure sensor, laser rangefinder and a variety of other sensors such as accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer to control status. the robot. The robot has a total weight of 22.7kg.

The Sepios is also equipped with a rechargeable battery and each charge allows it to operate for 90 minutes at a maximum depth of 10 meters.

Due to the ability to operate silently and to act flexibly, the team believes that Sepios is well suited to perform live surveillance and filming tasks. In the video below, you can see Sepios' maneuverability as you can mimic the diving of a member of the research team.