Scientists are developing a robotic jellyfish which uses the limitless energy of sea water to power its movement, according to US Navy-backed research published on Wednesday.
A screen grab of the 'robojelly' Image: InstituteofPhysics
A screen grab of the 'robojelly' Image: InstituteofPhysics
“Robojelly” mimicks the action of the jellyfish, which uses a
circular muscle to open out a bell-like body and then sharply close
it, which expels water and moves the creature forward.
The robot’s body is made of eight segments made of shape-metal
alloy — metals that remember their original shape after being
scrunched up.
They are coated with a platinum black powder, which reacts with
the oxygen and hydrogen components of sea water to create heat.
The heat travels to the robot’s artificial muscles, causing the
eight bell segments to contract and thus eject the water. After
contraction, the segments relax and regain their original
shape.
“To our knowledge this is the first successful powering of an
underwater robot using external hydrogen as a fuel source,” said
Yonas Tadesse, an Ethiopian-born mechanical engineer at Virginia
Tech.
Still in the lab phase, Robojelly goes in only one direction
because all eight segments are activated at the same time.
The next step will be to power each segment, enabling the robot
to move and be controlled in different directions.
The study appears in the journal Smart Materials and Structures,
published by Britain’s Institute of Physics.
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