Forget Robots, MIT Scientists Have Built 'Roboats' That Join To Create On-Demand Bridges

Robots and automated equipment today are being used in a lot things that directly affect our mobility. And not just on land. Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with something that will one day affect the way we travel over water.

Together with The institute the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), researchers from MIT have created an autonomous aquatic robot and have interestingly named it ¡°Roboat¡± (no pun intended)!

So what does it do? The basic function of Roboats is to aid in transportation by finding new ways of doing so. New modes of transportation? But aren¡¯t they already ¡°boats¡±, you ask? Well, yes! But they have been designed to couple together to form new ¡°on-demand infrastructures¡±. Sort of like Lego building blocks. Mind blown?!

Roboat (Image: MIT News)

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The Roboats are equipped with the ability to recognise each other and then link together. Even if they do not attach at the first try, they will keep trying till such time that a connection is established. The Roboats can also avoid obstacles in their way, rerouting themselves when such an obstruction is sensed in their path. MIT researchers say that the future iterations will also include "tentacle-like rubber grippers" for more operational capabilities.

All this is made possible through a "sensors, thrusters, microcontrollers, GPS modules, cameras, and other hardware."

Pretty cool, right? But what is the purpose of this?

The applications extend as far as one¡¯s imagination can go. Though the MIT team has created the Roboats for a specific purpose. They want the Roboats to aid in transportation and trash collection in Amsterdam, a considerable portion of which is under water.

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The researchers are aiming to gather data of the region through the Roboats, further looking into the possibilities of waterways and self-driving technologies in the region. Some even say that the Roboats might be used to create floating food markets.

On a purely imaginative basis, we would say that it is quite a subtle way of defining the potential capabilities of these robots. But since this is just the start, commenting at the moment does not make sense.

But think of it this way. These Roboats are basically floating platforms that can guide themselves to form a structure over water. This might mean on-demand bridges can be built through large iterations of these (which the scientists are looking to build, by the way). An even larger structure can be imagined to be a customised dock for ships and ferries, escape platforms for emergencies and who knows, maybe even a floating island! One might say we are over imagining things but hey! That is what science is all about.