Cyborg jellyfish will help in studying the ocean [VIDEO]

Employees at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are working on creating robotic jellyfish that can collect information about the state of the ocean. The authors combined living organisms and electronics in one development, so hybrid robotic jellyfish will be able to conduct observations at great depths. 

With the help of marine animals, scientists will monitor the temperature and salinity of the water, as well as its level of oxygen saturation. To create the technology, Caltech researchers used an analogue of a pacemaker that can control the swimming speed of jellyfish. Having implanted it into marine organisms, the authors of the experiment discovered that jellyfish spend less energy if they are forced to increase their speed in the water. 

Jellyfish, swimming three times faster, can only use twice as much energy. To increase their speed, scientists have created special aerodynamic “hats”. The design fits over a dome-shaped gelatinous body, and sensors and other electronics can be placed underneath it.

The authors of the experiment tested the effectiveness of cyborgs in a tank of water with a vertical flow. It turned out that modified sea creatures can swim 4.5 times faster than their normal counterparts. Currently, university staff are working on electronics that are resistant to high pressure in real ocean conditions. Scientists also hope to create a biohybrid jellyfish that can be controlled from a distance.