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Crabster is built to crawl across the ocean floor, reaching locations off limits to other submarines

- ANDREW RIDGWAY

Inspired by crabs and lobsters, the Crabster underwater robot has been designed to walk along the floor of the ocean, enduring currents that would knock its propeller-powered cousins off course. Designed by engineers at the Korea Institute for Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), it can adjust its posture to cope with the toughest of conditions.

Crabster has six legs - as opposed to a biological crab's eight - and can use the front pair to pick up objects from the ocean floor to be examined at the surface. The design was inspired by conditions off the Korean coast. “There are strong currents and cloudy water off the Korean Peninsula,” says Dr Bong-Huan Jun, who is leading Crabster's development. “We have never been able to explore that area with conventional propeller-driven underwater vehicles. The strong current blows them off course or prevents them from keeping their position and attitude.”