New robot can swim underwater before flying through the air like a bird

The lightweight robot takes inspiration from diving birds that can both swim and fly (Picture: Raphael Zufferey and Victor Pennacino/Cover Images)

A new ultra-lightweight robot can swim underwater – before emerging to fly through the air like a bird.

The flapping-wing aerial-aquatic vehicle (FAAV), created by researchers at EPFL in Switzerland and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), takes inspiration from diving birds including puffins, gulls, loons and petrels, which are able to both fly and swim.

The study, published in the journal Science, examined how a lightweight robot weighing less than 300g could replicate the movements of birds that dive beneath the water’s surface before returning to the air.