In what could be the beginning of the end, a team of student engineers have built an autonomous, 5 foot jellyfish. While that may sound and look terrifying, this robot built by Virginia Tech College of Engineering researchers has more helpful plans than world domination. When it’s fully operational, this technology could be used for anything from military surveillance to cleaning oil spills and helping the environment.
Video description from Virginia Tech YouTube Channel:
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, as part of a U.S. Navy-funded project.
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.
