Jellyfish echoes, Robot Can 'Swimming' in the Air

A robotic jellyfish designed to be able to fly and 'swim' in the air like a real jellyfish swim in the water.

As quoted from TalkingScience, Wednesday (03/16/2011), the robot was developed by a company called Festo. It has a main body like a balloon and eight tentacles underneath.

AirJelly main body, the robot name, filled with helium so that it can float. Then the tentacles using electric motors to melesatkan AirJelly body into the air with the principle of peristaltic propulsion.

In a video on YouTube, can be seen demonstrations AirJelly movement. His movements were graceful look like real sea creatures. Not only to the above, he also could move freely in three dimensional space.

In its official document, Festo said that the principle of movement in water to be applied to air transport has long been a concern of scientists the world. But very rarely attempt to develop the movement of water creatures to flying objects.

"Can the movement of jellyfish in the water serves as the principle of propulsion for flying objects? In other words, could an object flying through the air like a jellyfish swimming in the water?" Festo call to explain the questions behind AirJelly.

AirJelly tentacles are not equal to that of the original jellyfish. Precisely these tentacles design is based on fish fins.

To move freely, not only up and down, AirJell using a pendulum at the top. Movement of the pendulum will shift the center of mass AirJelly so that his body will move according to the change.