Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Navy robot jellyfish is as big as a person


That's a whole lotta robot jellyfish.


(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)

"We're gonna need a bigger jellyfish." I imagine that's what the Navy and researchers at Virginia Tech were thinking when they started development on Cyro, a robot jellyfish that is 5 foot 7 inches across and weighs a hefty 170 pounds.


The Navy has been into robot jellyfish before, but none have been on this scale for sheer size. This big boy is a much larger version of an earlier robot called the Robojelly, which was only about as large as a hand.


Cyro, however, has a method to its massiveness. "A larger vehicle will allow for more payload, longer duration and longer range of operation," said Alex Villanueva, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. The robot is part of a larger $5 million project funded by the U.S. Navy aimed at developing autonomous aquatic vehicles.


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