Researchers at Switzerland’s EPFL have built the most salamander-like robot this world has ever seen, though I’m not sure how many others have ever even attempted such a task.
The robot looks like a skeleton and mimics a salamander’s movements, thanks to the team of researchers spending countless hours studying the way the amphibian walks and swims, even delving into how the creature walks underwater.
Neural network models capable of mimicking pattern generators in the spinal cord control “virtual muscles” of the Pleurobot, allowing it to perform a wide variety of movements and postures, including moving from land to water and vice versa.