Researchers have developed an unusual new underwater robot, which they hope will prove less destructive to marine life and more nimble than regular underwater vehicles.
ZodiAq, which is the size of a baseball and is made from silicone rubber, features 12 propeller-like legs, each of which is attached to a motor.
While the current version is slow, covering the length of two body footprints in 15 seconds, the developers expect that future versions will be capable of faster movement.
They have based its propulsion on the way that bacteria move, via flagella.
It has been designed so that not all the legs need to be functioning for it to continue moving, in an apparent win for redundancy.
It also does not have a “front”, which the researchers said could make it difficult to decide where to mount a useful device like a camera.
