Metro News featured a story on AQUA bot, an amphibious, otter-like robot, which is a joint project of York, McGill and Dalhousie universities. To read the story, click here.

Researcher Michael Jenkin of York's Faculty of Science & Engineering explains that the robot can now be controlled wirelessly using a waterproof tablet built at York. While underwater, divers can program the tablet to display tags onscreen, similar to barcodes read by smartphones. The robot’s on-board camera then scans these two-dimensional tags to receive and carry out commands. For a video of AQUA in action, click here.

Jenkin is based in York’s new state-of-the-art Sherman Health Science Research Centre, which officially opened on Sept. 14, 2010. He leads the Canadian Centre for Field Robotics, which is based on the building’s main level. The centre is supported by a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). The AQUA project is funded in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).