Overview
- The FAAV is a modular, waterproof vehicle weighing about 250–300 grams that uses two flexible membrane wings, a movable tail, onboard electronics and a small electric motor to swim and fly.
- Researchers found that pitching the vehicle to roughly 70 degrees at the surface lets it break water’s surface tension and launch into air without leg paddling by using wing size, flap frequency and tail angle.
- In lab tanks and field trials on Lake Geneva the robot swam at about 1 meter per second when flapping near 5 Hz and flew at about 6 meters per second at similar flap rates.
- The team reported the results in Science on July 9, 2026, and showed that medium‑sized wings with intermediate flexibility gave the most reliable swim‑to‑flight transitions.
- The authors say the design challenges next include adding wing‑twist steering and testing performance in choppy, turbulent and windy conditions before the FAAV can be used for oceanography and coastal sampling.