Scientists Develop Robots That Literally Walk on Water
Inspired by nature, researchers developed two prototypes that can propel themselves across liquids.
Mihai AndreibyMihai Andrei October 3, 2025
The HydroBuckler robot shown here is driven by “leg” buckling to walk on water. Credit: Baoxing Xu, UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science.
For billions of years, nature has been the world’s master engineer. Natural evolution has created impressive, sometimes implausible creatures. Take, for instance, the water strider.
This group of insects has the ability to walk on top of water, using surface tension and long, hydrophobic legs. For decades, roboticists have tried to emulate this impressive ability. Building machines that can move on the surface of water holds immense promise for everything from environmental monitoring to search and rescue operations.
The problem, of course, is that something like this is extremely hard to build. The elements that make a creature good at walking on water (being lightweight, soft, and flexible) are a nightmare to build in the robotics world. Now, a team of engineers at the University of Virginia has found a creative way around this problem. They’ve developed a new process where robots are fabricated, patterned, and brought to life directly on the surface of water itself.
A Liquid Assembly Line
The researchers developed two prototypes that can propel themselves across liquid surfaces. Both are inspired by nature.
More:
https://www.zmescience.com/science/scientists-develop-robots-that-literally-walk-on-water/
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