Posted on 02/25/2020 10:53:22 AM PST by BenLurkin
Researchers can accidentally squish or mangle jellyfish and other delicate deep-sea creatures when they try to collect them for study. The common implements—nets, suction vacuums, and metal grippers—are particularly unfriendly to jellyfish. “As a marine biologist, it always kind of pained me to think about how we studied these animals,” said Gruber. “If we could operate without harming a jellyfish, we’d be doing something right. It’s the Mount Everest of delicate animals.”
In August 2019, Gruber and a team of Harvard engineers unveiled a squishy, flexible-fingered robot designed to more carefully handle marine animals. In a paper published today in Current Biology, the group went one step further and demonstrated that their noodle-y robot was not only physically softer but also stressed jellyfish far less than traditional collection devices.
The invention features six noodle-like appendages composed of soft silicone reinforced with strong but lightweight nanofiber sheets; it can curl and uncurl thanks to a hydraulically pressurized channel inside each finger. Engineer Nina Sinatra, who developed the robot at Harvard’s Microrobotics Laboratory, is a scuba diver and has seen jellyfish up close, so she understood the challenge of designing something delicate, quick, and precise enough to handle them without any tearing or poking.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
That’s great, if you’re a jellyfish.
I’m waiting for the robots that’s a friend to men.
I guess they could turn the noodly appendages on themselves.
“If you’re bad,
you’ll go to Hell.
And Jellyfish will sting you,
and your body will swell!
Jellyfish Heaven
in the big, blue sea,
where it’s too cold to surf,
and too warm to ski.
Jellyfish Heaven...
Is full of dead...
Jellyfish...”
Growing up in California (yes, I know) we used the term “jellyfish” as a verb.
If someone “jellyfished” it means they flaked out on something, as in unable to overcome inertia and get out of the house, like a jellyfish laying on the beach.
A robot like that with installed AI could certainly
touch you with it’s “noodly appendage”.
All hail the GSM!
Where’s my colander?
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