Engineer a Bio-Inspired Robot

MIT engineers built a robot that can fly through air and swim underwater by studying diving birds. The catch: air and water have very different densities, so a design that works in one environment can fail in the other, forcing tradeoffs between weight, materials, propulsion, waterproofing, stability, and wing design.

Your Task
Design a bio-inspired robot that operates in two environments, such as air and water, land and water, or land and air. Pick an animal to inspire it.

Propulsion: how will your robot move in each environment?
Materials: what properties do they need, lightweight, flexible, waterproof, strong?
Stability: how will you keep it balanced and controllable?
Power: what parts need energy, and how will you conserve it?
Purpose: what real-world job could your robot do better than a single-environment robot?

Engineering Tradeoff: improving your robot in one environment makes it worse in the other. Identify one tradeoff, then decide what you’d prioritize and defend your choice.

Prototype Failure: your robot works in both environments but fails during the transition between them. Identify two variables you’d test, predict how each could affect performance, and explain which experiment you’d run first.

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