Student team members from the Virginia Tech’s National Science Foundation Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems test a five-foot wide jellyfish-like robot under water at War Memorial Hall. Photo by:Amanda Loman, Virginia Tech
While jellyfish aren’t a beach goer’s favorite sea creature, these blob-like organisms–or at least robotic prototypes designed to look and move just like them– could be used to patrol the ocean, looking for signs of environmental despair in the near future.
The variety of shapes, sizes and colors of jellyfish, as well as their low metabolic energy rate, is why researchers nominated these cnidarians to monitor the sea.
So far, Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers have created two robotic prototypes of these jellyfish. The first robot, named RoboJelly was only about the size of a man’s hand and was designed to look like the jellyfish found near shore along beaches.
The second one designed by Shashank Priya,professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech was unveiled in 2012, stands 5 foot 7 inces tall and weighs roughly 170 pounds. The giant robotic jellyfish was named Cyro, after the species it was designed to look like– Cyanea capillata, Latin for Llion’s Manemain.
Virginia Tech: Autonomous Robotic Jellyfish from virginiatech on Vimeo.
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