Flying, helium-filled robo-jellyfish

Posted by John Brownlee, September 3, 2008 7:42 AM | permalink

Festo's engineers have created this graceful, helium-filled robotic jellyfish that gracefully swims through the air, lazily slapping outwards with its robotic tentacles. Those tentacles appear to have fly swatters attached, putting my mind into a frenzy of imagination, as I feverishly look forward to a day when all of the foreleg-gnawing houseflies buzzing around my computer area are ruthlessly exterminated by a floating robot jellyfish.

Miniaturize, then mass produce, Festo! Filthy shut-in bloggers demand it!

[via Danger Room]

posted in:

Favorite this!

Older The anti-microbial Silver Seal Flex keyboard glows in the dark of your washing machine's belly

Newer Skeleton hand serving forks for Mignolian diners

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by Takuan , September 3, 2008 8:30 AM

that is SOOO COOL!

Take a look at this

#2 posted by schwal , September 3, 2008 9:18 AM

Making them (significantly) smaller wont work due to the volume issue. volume of a sphere is 4/3 Pi R cubed. if we assume a radius of five feet (diameter of ten) the volume is 526.6 cubic feet. if we halve the radius, the volume drops to 65.4 cubic feet, an
_eighth_ of the first one. that in turn means eight times the number of strokes to keep it upright if we scaled the fins to the same degree.

so instead of looking like a jellyfish, it will look like a scared octopus. on crack.

Take a look at this

#3 posted by jordawesome , September 3, 2008 9:29 AM

I, for one, support this scared-octopus-on-crack endeavour. Furthermore, I happen to have a Festo catalog at my very desk, so it's pretty much already 80% designed. Except for the math. And the actual design part. But the important part is that I have the literature. Somewhere.

Take a look at this

#4 posted by Enochrewt , September 3, 2008 9:57 AM

Whoa that's cool.

The video link doesn't work for me (here or Danger Room) for some reason, so I tracked it down on YouTube and found a Flying Manta Ray video as well:

Festo Air Ray

In the coments for the jellyfish someone suggested that there be a sport created that involved hunting down flying robotic jellyfish from a dirigible. I think that truly would be the sport of kings.

Take a look at this

#5 posted by FoetusNail , September 3, 2008 11:07 AM

I now worship Festo.

Enochrewt - thanks for the AirRay link!

Take a look at this

#6 posted by lercio , September 3, 2008 2:04 PM

This was on the Gadget Show on UK Channel5

http://gadgetshow.five.tv/jsp/5gsmain.jsp?lnk=401&featureid=790&show=s8e10§ion=Features

I think it is Series 8 Ep 10 if you have access to 5demand.

Take a look at this

#7 posted by AirPillo , September 3, 2008 2:53 PM

Looks more like a squid.