Robo-jelly - the cyborg hailed as a saviour for fragile ocean habitats

0 Robot jellyfish are able to swim freely, move from side to side and squeeze through openings Self-propelled robot jellyfish could play an important role in protecting fragile parts of the world’s oceans, according to academics.

The soft-bodied cyborgs, which have been created to mimic real jellyfish, are able to swim freely, move from side to side and even squeeze through narrow openings.

It’s hoped they could be employed to explore delicate ecosystems such as coral reefs without inflicting damage.

The robo-jellies were developedbyscientistsfromflorida Atlantic University (FAU) and the Office of Naval Research in the US.

The team used 3D printing techniques to create five different synthetic jellyfish out of silicon, each with eight pneumatic tentacles.

The designs were modelled on the moon jellyfish, the most common species found in UK waters.

“Studying and monitoring fragile environments such as coral reefs has always been challenging for marine researchers,” said Dr Erik Engeberg, from FAU.

“Soft robots have great potential to help with this.

“Biomimetic soft robots basedonfishandothermarine animals have gained popularity in the research community in the last few years.

“Jellyfish are excellent candidates because they are very efficient swimmers.

“Their propulsive performance is due to the shape of their bodies, which can produce a combination of vortex, jet propulsion, rowing and suctionbased locomotion.”

The five specimens were made with varying levels of rubber hardness to analyse the effect this has on propulsion efficiency.

Other tests showed the unique robots were powerful enough to push themselves through tight gaps.

Test were carried out in swimming pools and in the open sea, at sites including a sunken wreck and artificial reefs in the Atlantic Ocean.

“We found the robots were able to swim through openings narrower than the nominal diameter of the robot,” Dr Engeberg said.

“In the future we plan to incorporate environmental sensors like sonar into the robot’s control algorithm, along with a navigational algorithm. This will enable it to find gaps and determine if it can swim through them.”

He added: “A main application of the robot is exploring and monitoring delicate ecosystems, so we chose soft hydraulic network actuators to prevent inadvertent damage. Additionally, live jellyfish have neutral buoyancy. To mimic this we used water to inflate the hydraulic network actuators while swimming.”