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@ 2013/04/03The US Navy has asked scientists at the Virginia Tech College of Engineering to continue the development of a robotic jellyfish for surveillance use.
Development began last year. At the time the US Navy offered five year funding to the college to come up with a fully working robotic jellyfish to surveil the seas.
As a result researchers at Virginia Tech’s Durham Hall lab have now developed a new updated jellyfish to last year's model, which goes by the name of Cryo.
According to Device Magazine, the new and improved machine stands at five foot seven inches tall and weighs in at 170 pounds.
It has a set of central core components kept safe in a silicon waterproof shell, which is connected to eight moving arms and mimics a jellyfish’s action of movement.
Researchers are now trying to work out further how a jellyfish functions so that those movements can be applied to a robotic version.
The boffins also need to work on enhancing the four hour battery life that the robot currently has to make it viable for real world use.
Development began last year. At the time the US Navy offered five year funding to the college to come up with a fully working robotic jellyfish to surveil the seas.
As a result researchers at Virginia Tech’s Durham Hall lab have now developed a new updated jellyfish to last year's model, which goes by the name of Cryo.
According to Device Magazine, the new and improved machine stands at five foot seven inches tall and weighs in at 170 pounds.
It has a set of central core components kept safe in a silicon waterproof shell, which is connected to eight moving arms and mimics a jellyfish’s action of movement.
Researchers are now trying to work out further how a jellyfish functions so that those movements can be applied to a robotic version.
The boffins also need to work on enhancing the four hour battery life that the robot currently has to make it viable for real world use.
