Many robots exploring the ocean's depths come back broken when the cold and pressure prove too much to handle. Certain species of jellyfish, however, thrive in those deep-sea environments. And if researchers tinker with the species’ natural navigation skills, maybe expeditions could rely on these naturally gifted divers instead of on metal contraptions.
That’s a possibility that John Dabiri, a biological engineer at Stanford University, and his graduate student, Nicole Xu, propose in a new Science Advances paper. Electrodes implanted in the jellyfish mimicked the species' own movement system and prompted the tentacled swimmers to travel almost three times faster than normal.
Designing robots that can handle extreme underwater environments is very difficult. And while researchers attach sensors to , data that come from those projects depend on where, exactly, the animal chooses to go. But unlike other ocean residents, jellyfish don't have pain receptors and can't feel the shocks ...
