MILESTONE
Insects such as water striders can walk on water -- and now robots can too. Metin Sitti, an engineering professor who heads Carnegie Mellon University's Nano-Robotics Lab, has built an eight-legged mechanical creature that's so light -- about one gram -- that it can stand on water and propel itself forward without breaking the water's surface. Equipped with tiny sensors, Sitti says, future water-striding robots could be used to monitor water quality or snoop on enemies.
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