Festo - AquaJelly, Jellyfish Robot 2008

Festo has created the AquaJelly as part of its ongoing research programme into advanced automation. AquaJelly is an artificial autonomous jellyfish in water, a self-controlling system which emulates swarming behaviour. AquaJelly consists of a translucent hemisphere and eight tentacles for propulsion. At the centre of the AquaJelly is a watertight laser-sintered body. It houses a central electric motor, the two lithium-ion polymer batteries, the recharging control unit and the servo motors for the swash plate. Each AquaJelly is able to sense various aspects of its environment and to function completely autonomously, but is also endowed with communicative faculties that enable it to co-operate with other members of the group, and thereby behave as a system with a higher order of development. The company believes that by extending the principles of swarming behaviour to automation, many small autonomous or partly autonomous intelligent systems could work together to solve large-scale problems through strategic cooperation. The AquaJelly also provide a visually arresting demonstration of state-of-the-art animatronic technology.Jellyfish are fascinating creatures that consist of approximately 99 per cent water. Over the course of millions of years, they have efficiently adapted to the most varied of environments in both salt and fresh water.The construction of an artificial jellyfish can at best only be seen as an attempt to gain further insights into these fascinating marine creatures and to learn from them. AquaJelly is an artificial autonomous jellyfish with an electric drive unit and an intelligent adaptive mechanism that emulates swarming behaviour.It consists of a translucent hemisphere, a central watertight body and eight tentacles for propulsion.The AquaJelly's translucent hemispherical dome houses an annular control board with integrated, pressure, tight and radio sensors.The orientation of the propulsion system is constantly monitored by a processor.The control board also contains eight white and eight blue LEDs, which together with the sensors allow communication between several AquaJellies.
More info: http://www.festo.com/cms/en-us_us/588...

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  Science & Technology

[Jim Stiernberg]

HaD :)

[samianholt]

Haha - Yup I just got linked from Hackaday too :) - keep them coming :D

[Tim Bowers]

Just been linked by hack-a-day - Prepare for incoming! :)

I saw this awhile ago, amazing back then and still amazing now!

[KarasCyborg]

Now just need to get one to fly through the air like a UFO.

[BirdieTechno]

cool

[gonegoing123]

niceeeee

[kukelz]

phatttt