It’s a bird, it’s a plane … it’s a robo-puffin?

MIT Alumni News: 77

MIT engineers’ design for a robot that both swims and flies could lead to a new class of vehicles for ocean exploration.

October 20, 2026

RAPHAEL ZUFFEREY

Given that water is 1,000 times denser than air, moving through those two mediums requires very different mechanics—or so one might assume. Yet birds like gulls and puffins can plunge into the sea, swim underwater, and leap back into the air to fly away. And now engineers at MIT…