ashikaga incandescence: Robot jellyfish could be used as military spy

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Robot jellyfish could be used as military spy

by John Atchison

Created on: May 10, 2013

Movie buffs from the 1960s will remember a classic film that starred Don Knotts as a man that fell into the ocean and became a fish. That movie was called 'The Incredible Mister Limpet', which featured a down on his luck accountant, who became not only a fish, but also a weapon that was used by the United States Navy back during the time of World War II. Knotts found happiness under the water, giving him the life that he always wanted.

Alas though, a creature of the sea being used as a military weapon is nothing but fantasy, right? Well, that is not exactly correct. It appears that if researchers at Virginia Tech have their way, the oceans of the world could be occupied one day with robotic jellyfish. This jellyfish could be used for any number of possibilities, with one of them being to function as a military spy in the right situation. Sounds kind of like Mister Limpet does it not?

Do not look for these robotic creatures to swim up next to beachgoers at the beach this summer. This project has been going on for a couple of years now, but it still has kinks that need to be worked out. When one checks out the picture featured in this CNN piece, the robotic jellyfish called Cyro, it an impressive site. What one does not see is how big the original prototype was, which was about the size of an average man's palm.

Cyro has come of age since the small one, named RoboJelly, first debuted. The latest incarnation is much larger, spanning 5 feet, 7 inches wide and weighing in at a robust 170 pounds. Even at that larger size though, Cyro is still designed well enough to make folks think it looks like a standard beast from the deep. That is because the Virginia Tech Engineering Department, in conjunction with other universities, has really made this robot seem like the real thing.

The larger jellyfish has eight aluminum arms, making it able to move around with graceful ease. These legs and its brain are covered with a flexible silicone covering that allows the jellyfish to re-create the movements that one would normally see from these creatures in the ocean. It seems to be a device that could fool a passing submarine or whatever else the United States Government might want to take a look at.

Before folks begin thinking this will be a military piece of equipment, it is being built for many other purposes. Among the robot's uses could be the monitoring of ocean currents, as well as other weather related scenarios like tsunamis. It could help with observing underwater sea life or changes in terrain below. Heck, it could even help do things like cleaning up oil spills.

As mentioned above though, these robotic jellyfish have not made it into an ocean yet, and could be a few years from doing that. That is because the researchers are still trying to develop a strategy for being able to keep these robots powered in the ocean deep. At present, the current jellyfish is being powered by rechargeable nickel metal hydride batteries, which is fine for short trips. These batteries have about a four hour continuous use life.

That amount of time is good for a few hour joyride, but the Navy wants a product that can stay under for much longer periods of time. That as caused the researchers to examine other forms of energy, like solar or wave energy. There has even been talk of using microbial fuel cells that could take things out of the water to power the device. Those dreams are in the formative stage, but it is still exciting to see American ingenuity hard at work again.

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