Robots, fish, and blimps don’t seem very parallel at all. Yet they come together in a remarkable cool robot: the Electroactive Polymer Robot Blimp.
Made by Empa, a Swiss Federal Laboratory that specializes in material sciences, the Robot Blimp is lighter than air, eight feet long, and has actuators that act like muscles to move the blimp. Armed with a tail that moves back and forth, the robot blimp is just like a fish. The actuators are robotic imitations of biological muscles, and the robot moves in a single fluid motion with its body and its tail. It’s also really amazing because it can be controlled with a joystick, and it has its own electrical supply and control system, but it is so light and is almost weightless.
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