Abstract
Biohybrid robotic designs incorporating live animals and self-contained microelectronic systems can leverage the animals’ own metabolism to reduce power constraints and act as natural chassis and actuators with damage tolerance. Previous work established that biohybrid robotic jellyfish can exhibit enhanced speeds up to 2.8 times their baseline behavior in laboratory environments. However, it remains unknown if the results could be applied in natural, dynamic ocean environments and what factors can contribute to large animal variability. Deploying this system in the coastal waters of Massachusetts, we validate and extend prior laboratory work by demonstrating increases in jellyfish swimming speeds up to 2.3 times greater than their baseline, with absolute swimming speeds up to 6.6 ± 0.3 cm s−1. These experimental swimming speeds are predicted using a hydrodynamic model with morphological and time-dependent input parameters obtained from field experiment videos. The theoretical model can provide a basis to choose specific jellyfish with desirable traits to maximize enhancements from robotic manipulation. With future work to increase maneuverability and incorporate sensors, biohybrid robotic jellyfish can potentially be used to track environmental changes in applications for ocean monitoring.
Highlights
With ocean acidification altering animal behavior and function [1,2] and temperature-induced biodiversity changes in marine environments [3,4], new tools can expand efforts to track markers of climate change in more sensitive or previously unexplored areas of the ocean [5]
The robotic system was attached to the jellyfish bell in three locations: a wooden pin connected to the housing was inserted into the center of the manubrium from the subumbrellar surface, and each electrode was inserted into the subumbrellar tissue
The present study demonstrates a proof of concept that biohybrid robotic jellyfish can be implemented in coastal conditions, with doubled swimming speed enhancements, comparable to prior experiments conducted in the laboratory
Summary
With ocean acidification altering animal behavior and function [1,2] and temperature-induced biodiversity changes in marine environments [3,4], new tools can expand efforts to track markers of climate change in more sensitive or previously unexplored areas of the ocean [5]. An alternative approach is to incorporate live animals into a biohybrid robotic construct, which can use an inexpensive and simpler microelectronic system to power electrodes that excite an existing biological system, instead of the energy costs and design considerations for using mechanical actuators and chassis. The ubiquity of jellyfish found at various depths, including thousands of meters below surface level [33], offers opportunities to incorporate biohybrid robots to explore new areas of the ocean in the future. This would require only a hardened microelectronic system, as opposed to an entire robot that could be damaged in real conditions. A hydrodynamic model was developed to demonstrate predictive capabilities
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