Robot jellyfish project funded by US Navy's Office of Naval Research

Researchers at universities, including Virginia Tech and the University of Texas at Dallas, are currently working on a 'Robojelly' Project funded by the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research. The project works towards creating a jellyfish-shaped robot that can travel underwater by powering itself with ocean water. The robot, which is inspired by the moon jellyfish that sucks water into its ‘belly’ then pushes it out to create motion, is made of silicone and other high-tech materials. However, the particular matter that really allows the robojelly to move is the shape-memory alloy which makes up its pseudo-muscles. The shape-memory alloy is a type of alloy that remembers its original shape and can always return to it. So when the oxygen and hydrogen gases in the ocean water cause a chemical reaction, the robojelly’s pseudo-muscles contract and then return to their original shape, allowing it to glide through the ocean.