Robert Baines

Robert Baines received his BS in mechanical engineering from Rice University in 2013 and his MS in mechanical engineering and materials science from Yale University in 2019. He is currently a post-defense PhD student at the Faboratory at Yale University, led by Prof. Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, and is set to graduate this May. Robert’s PhD research has focused on designing material systems for robotic shape change to expand and improve robotic capabilities across different tasks and environments. Robert is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and a Swiss National Science Foundation Robotics Exchange Fellowship. 

Aquatic-to-terrestrial transitions, such as ocean estuaries and their surrounding lands, are some of most important ecosystems on Earth: they serve as natural filters for watersheds, harbor diverse species, and are nurseries for the majority of fish consumed by humans. Continuous environmental monitoring of these intertidal zones is essential to humanity’s well-being. Amphibious robots are promising systems for in-situ surveying and sampling of aquatic-to-terrestrial transitions. However, diverse physical phenomena like waves, currents, rocks, vegetation, as well as patches of fluidized sediment, make designing robots that locomote through these zones particularly challenging. We recently introduced Amphibious Robotic Turtle (ART), a turtle-inspired robot that adapts for locomotion in its environment via limbs that morph between specialized terrestrial and aquatic shapes to perform a variety of gaits. ART can swim underwater or at the surface, walk over different terrain, and transition between water and land. Investigating the confluence of robot gait, limb shape, and the environmental medium, we found that, by adapting its shape and gait, ART can locomote in different environments with comparable, or in some cases, even better cost of transport than exclusively uni-modal robots. Analysis of ART’s performance prompted questions about how and when a robot should change its shape and behavior if transitioning between environments. Future experiments will assess ART in a bespoke testing tank featuring controllable waves, current, incline, substrate, and temperature. With this setup, we hope to converge on field-ready shape-gait policies for autonomous surveying of important oceanic ecosystems at the aquatic-to-terrestrial transition.