Researchers create robotic jellyfish to be ‘guardian of the oceans’

With climate change and coral bleaching posing threat to coral reefs, scientists have created a new jellyfish robot to be ‘guardians of the oceans’ and help monitor the fragile corals.

Researchers from the US Office of Naval Research and Florida Atlantic University have created a soft-bodied robotic jellyfish that uses hydraulic tentacles to be ocean guardians and study the fragile coral reefs without interfering with the delicate wildlife.

One of the inventors Erik Engeberg said, “Studying and monitoring fragile environments, such as coral reefs, has always been challenging for marine researchers. Soft robots have great potential to help with this.”

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Inspired from the moon jellyfish, these aquatic ‘jellybots’ are able to squeeze in through small holes and swim through the threatened corals without even putting them at the risk of any collision or damage. The jellybots have already been tested squeezing in through holes cut in plexiglass that are narrower than their own bodies, wrote Express.co.

Video Courtesy: Daily Mail

Five prototypes of these jellybots with different hardness levels were created via 3D printing for the tests. The robot uses two impeller pumps to swim and steer, while pumped water from the surrounding environment is used in order to inflate the bot’s eight silicon-rubber tentacles. The natural elasticity of the tentacles pushes the water back out when the pumps are not being powered. This back and forth motion hence creates a swimming stroke just like that of a real-life jellyfish.

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

As per the study published in journal Biomimetics and Bioinspiration, the researchers claim that in future, these jellybots will have environmental sensors and navigating programming to help them find gaps and decide if they can swim through them or not, reported Daily Mail.