At Georgia Institute of Technology and in cooperation with U.S Army Research office researchers are studying the habits of baby loggerhead turtles as they walk across different sand materials to get to the Ocean. Researchers found that the turtles were able to maintain their speed regardless of the sand condition. They concluded that the turtles performance was do to the variation in how they used their wrists. Researchers built a robot to model the turtles, they named it the "FlipperBot". The robot was constructed with flexible wrists just like the turtles. The Robot immediately showed similarities, it was able to keep a constant speed in various sand conditions. Researchers observed that when the robot walked through area where its front appendages had been the robot significantly slowed down, this same condition was observed in sea turtles. The research is providing information to create amphibious vehicles, and is providing insight into how turtles evolved.
NOS Theme:
Science is collaborative- It took a team of researchers to study the turtles and create the robot.
Role of motivation and curiosity-If the scientist were not motivated to create more efficient machines none of this work would have been completed.
Science requires evidence and research- without any observations or research the team could not have built the FliperBot
Science leads to innovation- with the data collected by these scientist new more efficient amphibious machines can be created
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130423211711.htm
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