A tiny deep sea robot took a dive into Earth's deepest trench

This miniature deep-sea robot just dove down the mariana trench

Scientists at China's Behang University developed a tiny morphable robot to explore the ocean steps

The team successfully demonstrated that its creation can swim, crawl and glide untethered

at a depth of 10,600 meters in the Earth's deepest oceanic trench located

in the Pacific Ocean. Separately, they also developed a soft gripper, which can be worn on a rigid robot

It was tested in the South China Sea, where the researchers attached it to a rigid arm on a submersible

which they sent 3,400 meters deep. There, the gripper collected small marine creatures

such as starfish and urchins resting on the seafloor. About 70% of our planet is covered by oceans, but only a fraction has been explored

And some of the reasons for that lie in the challenging environment of the deep seas

such as extreme cold, perpetual darkness and crushing pressure. The advancement of technology is helping overcome some of these obstacles

Today existing deep sea exploration craft most of which operated by humans on board can disturb the fragile ecosystems they sent to study Behang University novel creation can generate movement by using swap motion to switch between two stable states

The robot contains incompressible components, such as tail fins for swimming, a set of legs for crawling

unfoldable pectoral fins, which enable gliding. These can store elastic energy, at high pressures, which the robot can then use for faster movement once submerged at greater depths

If the robot repositions its legs when moving, it can switch between different modes of locomotion

Deep Sea robots have so far helped spot previously uncovered marvels of the ocean world

including the Schmidt Ocean Institute's 2024 expedition in the waters near Chile

Chile, in which the remotely operated vehicle, Sue Bastien, spotted an epic migration of crabs

a shimmering psychedelic marine warm, life flourishing around deep methane seeps, and possibly 60 new species

So, after Behang University's successful tests in the Mariana Trench and the South China Sea

the researchers are hopeful that the tiny machines can contribute to an improved understanding

of deep-sea environments and a weird and wonderful life that thrives in this dark realm