Japanese Swumanoid Could Help Us Swim Faster - Next Olympics Maybe?

Tokyo Institute of Technology's Nakashima Group is developing an Android Bot called Swumanoid that replicates a swimmer's motion. Swimming Research are attempting techniques to figure out ways to help swimmers swim faster than usual. But they face a problem of measuring the amount of propulsive force the hands create during a stroke by attaching sensors to the swimmer's hands. Using a 3D Body Scanner, they replicated the body structure of a competitive swimmer, whereas 20 computer-controlled waterproof motors replicate the complex swimming motions.

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A swimmer's shoulder movements being quite swift and large, they had to introduce special joints to the Swumanoid's shoulder. The researchers noted that nowit swims at 0.64 m/s which is about three times slower than the current world record for a 100m freestyle, but quite a remarkable feat for a design which is at a prototype stage. Swumanoid does butterfly and backstroke and is attempting breaststroke soon. In near future, it will help researchers develop high speed swimming apparel and we might see Japan getting all the gold medals in next Olympics. What do you think?

Check the video from #-Link-Snipped-# below -