This Adorable Turtle Bot Will Help Underwater Archeologists
u-CAT swimming in an aquarium at Centre for Biorobotics mihkell via Flickr, Courtesy of Centre for Biorobotics, Tallinn University of Technology Sure, there are plenty of UAVs and ROVs and other underwater robots. But these deep divers tend to be large and bulky, and can be something of a bull in a china shop. For that, the ARROWS project has turned to the adorably named (and equally cute-looking) U-CAT. ARROWS is an EU-funded project that focuses on creating underwater vehicles and technology to help lower the cost of underwater archeology. When divers explore sites, it's expensive and time consuming. But a robot—as is the case with most of our mechanical friends—can do it cheaper and more efficiently, and can explore more dangerous sites. The small, agile U-CAT specifically has locomotion similar to sea turtles, with four flippers that are independently driven, allowing...