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Related: About this forumLarge Robotic Jellyfish Could One Day Patrol Oceans
Large Robotic Jellyfish Could One Day Patrol Oceans
Mar. 28, 2013 Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers have unveiled a life-like, autonomous robotic jellyfish the size and weight of a grown man, 5 foot 7 inches in length and weighing 170 pounds.
The prototype robot, nicknamed Cyro, is a larger model of a robotic jellyfish the same team -- headed by Shashank Priya of Blacksburg, Va., and professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech -- unveiled in 2012. The earlier robot, dubbed RoboJelly, is roughly the size of a man's hand, and typical of jellyfish found along beaches.
"A larger vehicle will allow for more payload, longer duration and longer range of operation," said Alex Villanueva of St-Jacques, New-Brunswick, Canada, and a doctoral student in mechanical engineering working under Priya. "Biological and engineering results show that larger vehicles have a lower cost of transport, which is a metric used to determine how much energy is spent for traveling."
Both robots are part of a multi-university, nationwide $5 million project funded by U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center and the Office of Naval Research. The goal is to place self-powering, autonomous machines in waters for the purposes of surveillance and monitoring the environment, in addition to other uses such as studying aquatic life, mapping ocean floors, and monitoring ocean currents.
More:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130328124807.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
idwiyo
(5,113 posts)Seriously, want one of my own!
friendly_iconoclast
(15,333 posts)or a mobile SOSUS/IUSS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_Towed_Array_Sensor_System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Undersea_Surveillance_System
People will notice a 'trawler' steaming along a racetrack pattern near shipping lanes.
Several fake jellyfish quietly hanging around a shipping channel, not so much...