CMU team builds robot that walks on water By Mike Crissey,
Associated Press PITTSBURGH It could be called a mechanical
miracle — a robot that walks on water. With inspiration from
nature and some help from research at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, a research team led by Carnegie Mellon
engineering assistant professor Metin Sitti has built a tiny
robot that can walk on water, much like insects known as water
skimmers, water skaters, pond skaters or Jesus bugs. Although
it's only a basic prototype, Sitti and other researchers imagine
that his water-skimming robot could be used on any still water.
With a chemical sensor, it could monitor water supplies for
contamination or other toxins; with a camera it could be a spy
or an explorer; with a net or a boom, it could skim contaminants
off the top of water. Sitti, who runs Carnegie Mellon's
NanoRobotics Lab, said he has long been fascinated by water
striders and what it would take to build one. "I think it is the
final challenge of microrobotics if you