Meet U-CAT, the robotic turtle that will help archaeologists investigate shipwrecks

U-CAT was created by engineers in Estonia to dive to inaccessible places in shipwrecks that are too dangerous or deep for humans
The robot operates independently to inspect wrecks before resurfacing
Turtle is part of Science Museum’s festival celebrating 13 incredible animal robots from across Europe to showcase developments in biomimetics
Visitors can trek through the unnatural habitats of robots inspired by nature, interacting with creatures that swim, flap, and crawl

PUBLISHED: 07:24 EST, 29 November 2013 | UPDATED: 14:14 EST, 29 November 2013

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An underwater turtle that is designed to help archaeologists investigate shipwrecks, has gone on show in the UK for the first time.

U-CAT was created by engineers in Estonia to dive to inaccessible places too dangerous or deep for humans.

It is part of the Science Museum’s Robot Safari exhibition that runs over the weekend and showcases 13 machines inspired by nature, including a flying bat, glowing fish and even a tumbleweed.

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The robot was designed with fins instead of propellers so it can still be driven in all directions without disturbing water and beating up silt from the bottom, which would decrease visibility inside the shipwreck

The U-CAT turtle can operate independently, inspecting wrecks for hours before resurfacing, and has not been shown in the UK before.

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The creators of the prototype, from Tallinn University of Technology, Centre for Biorobotics, Estonia, designed it especially to explore shipwrecks and made it cheap enough for smaller companies to invest in.

The robot has four independently driven flippers to make it highly manoeuvrable and it is able to swim backwards as well as forwards, travel upwards and even turn in tight spaces.

Here, the U-Cat robotic turtle explores a simulation of a wreck in a demonstration. It has a camera onboard and can record what it sees so video footage can later be used to reconstruct a site underwater

Tallinn University of Technology, Centre for Biorobotics, Estonia, has created 'Arrows' - an archaeology robot designed to dive to dangerous depths. The robotic turtle can operate independently, inspecting wrecks for hours before resurfacing, and has not been shown in the UK before

It has a camera onboard and can record what it sees so video footage can later be used to reconstruct a site underwater.

Traditionally, propellers have been used to create small underwater exploration vehicles, but they can stir up sediment, obscuring the view from a camera.

Taavi Salumäe, the designer of the U-CAT concept and researcher at the university, told Live Science: ‘Fin propulsors of U-CAT can drive the robot in all directions without disturbing water and beating up silt from the bottom, which would decrease visibility inside the shipwreck.’

U-CAT, pictured here out of water, has been designed to be smaller and cheaper than underwater exploration vehicles used in the gas, oil and defense industries

Robot at work! Underwater turtle used to investigate shipwrecks

Professor Maarja Kruusmaa, head of the university’s Centre for Robotics, said: ‘The so called biomimetic robots - robots based on animals and plants - are an increasing trend in robotics where we try to overcome the technological bottlenecks by looking at alternative technical solutions provided by nature.’

While a number of underwater exploration robots are available and are frequently used in the oil, gas and defence industries, they are mostly too large and expensive to be used by people exploring shipwrecks.

The robot has four independently driven flippers to make it highly manoeuvrable and it is able to swim backwards as well as forwards, travel upwards and even turn in tight spaces

This is why U-CAT has been invented as an affordable alternative to putting human divers in potentially dangerous situations.

The device is part of the Arrows project, which is an EU-funded project to make underwater archaeology easier.

The various innovations, will be tested in the Mediterranean and the Baltic seas where devices like the underwater turtle will assist larger underwater robots to identify interesting underwater sites.

Jessiko is a luminous robotic fish. In a shoal it shows how robots can work together and may be useful for studying the behaviour of real fish. Jessiko, which was created by Robotswim SARL, France, will go on show for the first time in the UK

An extra-small version of the turtle joins other robtiic animals at the exhibition, including a robotic cheetah-cub, a shoal of luminous robotic fish and the unveiling of Pleurobot, a mechanical salamander at the Science Museum's Robot Safari.

Visitors to the exhibition, which runs for a long weekend until December 1, can trek through the unnatural habitats of robots inspired by nature, interacting with creatures that swim, flap, and crawl, in a ‘unique’ safari experience.

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Roboticists will demonstrate their robots from helping visitors interact with the fish to stretching the bat's wings, while explaining the latest developments in biomimetic robotics.

Pleurobot replicates salamander movements recorded from X-ray films and will aid reserach into motor skills, while Salamandra Robotica II is an amphibious robot that can both swim in water and walk on land. The robot was created to better understand how neural circuits inside a salamander’s spinal cord enable movement

There are also lessons to help people programme, build and race their own simple robots.

Nicola Burghall, Content Developer for Robot Safari at the museum, said: ‘Visitors to Robot Safari will see not just how nature can inspire innovative robotic designs, but also how these biomimetic robots are actually advancing our understanding of the animals and plants they mimic.’

The cheetah robot, may not look that much like its furry inspiration, but it mimics the cat’s legs so it can walk and trot.

Robot safari: Slithering salamander crosses land and water at...

Cheetah-cub - École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland Cheetah-cub is the fastest sub-30kg quadruped robot in the world, reaching 1.42m/s. Lightweight, compact and self-stabilising, the robot mimics a cat's legs and is currently being used to investigate the mechanics of cat locomotion

Lightweight and self-stabilising, the next-generation cat is not just a novelty item, but is a research tool that has the potential to be used by scientists to explore rough terrains.

The robot, which is built by the robotics laboratory at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, the cub is the fastest four-legged robot that weighs under 30kg, in the world and can run at 1.42 metres per second.

The researchers are also debuting their robotic salamander – the Pleurobot – for the first time.

Bat-Bot uses extremely light artificial muscles to move. Its wings change shape during flight to efficiently manoeuvre. It was created by the Centre for Automatic and Robotics of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain and will go on show for the first time in the UK

Professor Auke Ijspeert of EPFL, said: ‘Cheetah-cub mimics much of cat morphology – featuring significant simplifications and better performance than traditional quadruped robots – while the salamander-like Pleurobot represents the next stage in our quest to understand how the nervous system controls rich movement.

‘We aim to use Pleurobot for paleontology and robotics research, as we attempt to bring early tetrapods to life.’

The Bat-Bot uses extremely light artificial muscles to move and its wings change shape during flight, while Robo Spyder moves like the real thing and can negotiate obstacles as well as react to sound.

DodecaRob is a dodecahedral 12-legged robot, which mimics the way tumbleweed moves when blown by the wind. It was created by the University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania

An usual 12-legged robot mimics the unusual movement of a tumbleweed and another copies jellyfish propulsion to help scientists understand how the creatures move.

There are also multiple underwater robotic animals on show, including an iTuna and Jessiko - a luminous robotic fish that can swim as part of a shoal to show how robots can work together.

Robot Safari is free and suitable for all ages, but the Science Museum expects it to be popular and timed tickets will be needed, that can be booked in person at its ticket office or via 020 7942 4000.

iTuna is extremely simple, light and noiseless, using artificial muscles to move. This enables the robot to monitor underwater environments without disturbing local fish. It was developed by the Centre for Automatic and Robotics of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain

A robot turtle will help underwater archaeologists to inspect shipwrecks

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Kevin Plata, Querétaro, Mexico, 1 week ago

Wow, I'm really amazed, These are the kind of things that should be encouraged in my country. We waste money on bad investments that in the long term are useless. I see robots engineers build in some universities and truly I see only simplicity and nothing innovative. Maybe it's the lack of resources, but still I think they should take the risk on a few projects and do something more ambitious