Water strider movement decoded

[Anchor]

A Korean research team has discovered for the first time the principle that allows water striders to float on water and move freely.

Using this principle, they have created a micro-sized robot.

Reporter Kang Pu-ryun will report on how it can be utilized in the future.

[Report]

The micro-sized water strider 'Rhagovelia', smaller than an eyelash.

How can it move freely on water?

The tiny hair strands at the end of its legs spread out like a fan when submerged in water, creating strong propulsion as they fold back.

The time taken to generate propulsion is one-hundredth of a second.

This is the result of optimally utilizing the surface tension and elasticity of water, rather than relying on leg muscles.

This is the movement principle of water striders that has been revealed for the first time in the world by Korean researchers.

[Go Je-seong/Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ajou University: "When a brush or something falls into water, it spreads out and then contracts beautifully when pulled out. I believe this is a solution that AI could never come up with. It's efficient and doesn't require energy..."]

This principle has also been applied to micro-sized robots.

They successfully attached tiny artificial hairs to a water strider-shaped micro robot, allowing it to move quickly on water.

This can be applied to the development of aquatic robots for water quality exploration or disaster site searches.

It can also be utilized in research on 'wearable electronic devices' that need to be small and lightweight.

[Go Je-seong/Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ajou University: "We can extract many technologies that can be applied to very small-scale systems that can provide information to people and interact with them."]

This achievement, which is the result of 15 years of research, has been published as a cover article in the international journal 'Science'.

This is KBS News, Kang Pu-ryun.