Robotic jellyfish runs off renewable energy
Summary: Researchers at the University of Texas (Dallas) and Virginia Tech experiment with a robot that runs of hydrogen and oxygen.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas and Virginia Tech are using the concept of biomimicry to experiment with a robot that could, in the future, provide a model for the design of undersea surveillance and rescue vehicles.
So far, researchers have applied their approach to a robotic jellyfish (see the video below for a demonstration). The robotic jellyfish uses hydrogen and oxygen gasses in water as its source of energy. The work is described in Smart Materials and Structures.
"We've created an underwater robot that doesn't need batteries or electricity," said Yonas Tadesse, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas, and one of the study's authors, in a statement about the research. "It feeds off hydrogen and oxygen gasses and the only waste released as it travels is water."
The idea is that in the future, product designers may be able to use the concepts for the jellyfish in unmanned robots used in rescue and reconnaissance situations.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
Not this again
Probably the same place they're getting the Oxygen
I can't imagine there's a lot
Agreed: it needs to refuel
I agree that some layperson green-tech writers wrongly treat hydrogen like it was some freely-available resource. Looking at the paper abstract and the video, I don't see the researchers claim the system uses "hydrogen and oxygen gasses in water." That came from the Green Tech Pastures author. There is simply not enough hydrogen in seawater (<< 1 part per [i][b]million[/i][/b]) to pull this off. I strongly suspect that it would take more energy to extract the hydrogen that you could generate from it. Oxygen ranges from 0 - 20 ppm, so while it may be possible to use it, it seems best to BYO-Ox.
On the other hand, if you have electricity, it is easy to make Hydrogen and Oxygen from good-old H2O. If I was developing this idea into something practical, I think I'd have a hydrogen fueling station that is solar-powered, generating hydrogen (and oxygen?) from seawater during the day. The problem with solar power (besides low power-density) is that even during the day, the robo-jellyfish could not get adequate light to operate at any reasonable depth, so you need a chemical fuel source.
If I was Q, I'd make the fueling station look like a free-floating blob of kelp or a Portuguese Man o' War (love the gasbag on top) to make sure people ignore or avoid it, while the little robo-jellyfish cuddle up to it in the evening to get a hydrogen recharge before going about their business (mine / submarine detection?).