Nifty robotic turtle could locate mines in deserts

Researchers at Arizona State University are developing pint-sized robotic turtles that would slowly crawl on dusty, sandy terrains to locate buried landmines. These autonomous robots are designed to adapt their crawling technique with changing surface characteristics, given that rain and temperature keep altering the desert terrain.

Loaded with inexpensive computer chip and motors, the turtle bots are small and light, which makes them better for minesweeping compared to bulky and costly predecessors, writes New Scientist.

Even if a robot is lost while scouting and tagging landmines, the damage won’t involve hefty costs, which is one of the major merits of the new technique, notes BGR.