A new kind of robot swims the seas and soars the skies
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DANIEL: Glenna Clifton is an animal movement biologist at the University of Portland in Oregon who wasn't involved in the research. Clifton says the robot shows what makes the flight biology of diving birds unique, and she's excited about possible applications, like observing the coastal ocean and monitoring something like a remote coral reef.

CLIFTON: This robot could be deployed to fly efficiently towards where the coral reef is and then dive under the water to get a better view.

DANIEL: These are the sorts of applications that Raphael Zufferey back at MIT plans to enable by equipping the robot with a handful of onboard sensors. He and his team are continuing to refine and improve their aerial aquatic robots, honed by experimentation, but still inspired by the natural world.

ZUFFEREY: You see that it has already been done in biology, right? So it gives you hope as a robotics researcher. It tells you that it should be possible.

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