DailyDirt: Robots Of The Sea

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Robots can come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but some of the more interesting designs mimic some animals in the ocean. Machines that can operate underwater have some obvious military applications, but studying biomimicry can also lead to discoveries in biology and deep sea ecosystems. Here are just a few projects looking at some varieties of sea-faring robots.

• The field of biorobotics has created evolving fish robots to help understand the natural evolution of fish. Or... this is actually a direct study of intelligent design if you live in Tennessee. [url]
• The Octopus Project has built the world's first entirely soft robot with eight flexible arms that can crawl around underwater. It's not quite as mobile or dextrous as a real octopus, but soft robots are making some progress towards becoming useful. [url]
• The US Navy has funded a Robojelly project to make a soft robot that copies some of the characteristics of the moon jellyfish. This Robojelly robot is also self-powered using seawater as an electrolyte to activate its artificial muscles to contract. [url]
• To discover more interesting robotics-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: biorobotics, evolution, fish, jellyfish, navy, octopus, robojelly, robots