Scientists create robotic jellyfish and ants
It may look like a jellyfish, but this robot could soon be a top spy for the US Navy.
05:00 Sun Mar 31 2013
By MSN NZ staff
US university researchers are developing a robotic jellyfish that can perform military surveillance.
With a diameter of 1.7m, robot Cyro looks like one of the largest jellyfish species in the world and can float through the water, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Researchers who created the robot with a $4.8m grant from the US Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Office of Naval Research hope Cyro will one day be used to conduct underwater military surveillance.
It could also be used as part of clean-up work after oil spills and environmental disasters.
Virginia Tech engineering student Alex Villanueva said the robot was designed like a slow-moving jellyfish so it would be energy efficient.
"Our goal with this robot is to copy the natural jellyfish," he told the Los Angeles Times.
"We intend to leave it in the ocean for as long as we can.
"We're talking, like, weeks and months and even more if we can."
But jellyfish aren't the only organisms US scientists are drawing inspiration from, with a researcher from the New Jersey Institute of Technology creating tiny robots that act just like an ant colony, Live Science reports.
Simon Garnier said the cube-shaped robots may not look like ants, but can work together to find their way from one point to another by leaving individual light trails for each other to follow.
He said this capability helped ants pick the most direct route between their nest and food and could be used to improve designs for manmade transport networks.
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