Researchers at the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi’an, Shaanxi in China have built a jellyfish-inspired “underwater phantom” designed for stealth underwater operations.
According to its developers, the transparent robot replicates the movements and appearance of a real jellyfish with its soft, umbrella-shaped body and fluid propulsion system that enable it to quietly glide through the water, which makes it almost undetectable to sensors or the human eye.
Source: X/GT
The team intends for the robot to be employed for intelligent underwater detection, real-time environmental monitoring and potentially covert reconnaissance missions.
The robot combines low energy use, almost silent movement and a design to excel in deep-sea monitoring and structural inspection.
Built from a specially developed hydrogel electrode material, the transparent robot features an umbrella-shaped body and flexible tentacles that mimic the motion of real jellyfish.
The robot, which measures 4.7 inches in diameter and weighs 2 oz, is powered by an electrostatic hydraulic actuator that enables the jellyfish-inspired device to propel itself through the water by mimicking the way real jellyfish contract and relax their muscles in rhythmic pulses. The team explained that the actuator behaves much like neural signals in living organisms, thus allowing for smooth, organic movement but absent the noise or vibration common of traditional propulsion systems.
Because the robot produces almost no physical or acoustic disturbance, it is undetected even in sensitive marine environments.
The robot is outfitted with a tiny camera and an onboard AI processing chip, which enables the jellyfish-like system to detect and identify underwater targets with high precision using machine learning.
