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In recent years, there has been considerable interest in insect-inspired miniature robots. Through evolutionary processes, insects have prospered by adapting themselves to diverse environments. The number of species of insects is approximately one million, which comprises approximately two-thirds of all species of animals. By taking advantage of scaling effects, insects have acquired unique locomotive abilities, such as hexapedal walking, climbing on walls, jumping, and flying by flapping, that markedly extend their fields of activity. The working principles behind these behaviours are considered to be highly efficient and optimized for miniature systems. Therefore, they provide alternative design rules for developing smart and advanced microrobotic mechanisms. For example, the flapping motion of insect wings has been investigated for micromechanical flying robots (Suzuki, et al., 1994; Wood, 2008). This chapter focuses on the locomotion of water striders. This motion is dependent on surface tension. Recent studies have demonstrated the mechanisms that enable insects to stay, as well as move, on water. Furthermore, various kinds of miniature robots that are able to move on water have been developed. Hu et al. identified the mechanism of the momentum transfer that is responsible for water strider locomotion and proposed a mechanical water strider driven by elastic thread (Hu, et al., 2003). Gao et al. showed that the legs of water striders are covered with thousands of tiny hairs that have fine nanoscale grooves (Gao & Jiang, 2004). These hierarchical microand nanostructures create super-hydrophobic surfaces. Suhr et al. developed a water strider robot that is driven in one of its resonant modes by using unimorph piezoelectric actuators (Suhr, et al., 2005). Song et al. numerically calculated the statics of rigid and flexible supporting legs (Song, et al., 2006; Song, et al., 2007a) and developed a non-tethered water strider robot using two miniature DC motors and a lithium-polymer battery (Song & Sitti, 2007b). The locomotion mechanisms of fisher spider (Suter & Wildman, 1997; Suter, et al., 1999) and basilisk lizard (Glasheen & McMahon, 1996a; 1996b) on the surface of water were studied. A robot that mimics the water running ability of the basilisk lizard was also developed (Floyd, et al., 2006; Floyd & Sitti, 2008). The present authors (Suzuki, et al., 2007) have fabricated hydrophobic supporting legs with microstructured surfaces utilizing MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) techniques, and 18

Bio-Inspired Water Strider Robots with Microfabricated Functional Surfaces