Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No… it’s a Flying Jellyfish!

In a bid to create a new kind of flying robot, scientists in the US have sought inspiration from an unlikely source. Their vehicle flaps its wings in a way that recalls the pulsating swimming motions of jellyfish – creatures that are more at home in the water than in the air.

Most previous aerial robots have been engineered to mirror the movements of creatures that can actually fly. However, it has proved difficult to mimic the complex engineering that nature has mastered through millions of years of evolution. For example, robots that are inspired by insects such as fruit flies have to continually adjust their flying motion to respond to changes in the wind. Recreating this complex control in such a small mechanism is tricky.

By turning logic on its head and basing their design on a sea creature, Leif Ristroph and colleagues at New York University have come up with a solution. Their design operates without the need for any control system.

Read more at science focus

They say these things are ideal for miniaturization so it made me think of future Nano technology. Either way this is pretty cool. I have to say I would have never thought of designing flying jellyfish. It also got my imagination going on about early life on earth or life on other planets. Could there have once been or is there life out in the galaxy that looks like a jellyfish but fly’s though the air.


Ha Ha Cool idea.

reply to post by Grimpachi


That's awesome. What would you use it for though?

According to some sightings, the answer is in fact yes.

Here is one account from one of our own...
Flying Jellyfish

A few weeks ago during the middle of the day I was sitting outside in my back yard when I saw this white ring that looked sort of like a jellyfish hovering about 2-3 feet above me. I tried to stick my hand up and touch it and it started ascending moving away from me. It looked and moved like a jelly fish but it was ony about a centimeter in diameter and it was white. Though I could only make out with my eyes the ring shape it seemed to have somewhat of a body like a jellyfish, though it was somewhat transperant looking.

I have seen another one!!! It was not close enough for me to touch but it was close enough to watch. It was about ten feet above me. It was the same thing I described in my opening post again, but this time I had more time to observe it. The only part of it I could make out is the ring which seems to be more like the shape of a worm swirling around in circles. I watched it go for about 100 feet before I lost sight of it, I think it expands the higher it is. I think these things go entirely unnoticed and probably happen more than we think. You have to keep an eye on things that happen to be directly above you. That is how I spotted it both times. I am also pretty sure they are attracted to water and come closer to earth when there is alot of warmth and humidity.

So who knows, maybe the idea isn't that far out there.

reply to post by Thorneblood



LOL..Well I am sure what he saw seemed very real and maybe it was who knows. But I don't know the person personally so I can’t attest to his/her character or if that person left out any details from the activity’s from the day.

Back when I was 15 I took off one summer and followed around the Greatful Dead. I have seen a great many strange wonderful things but my accounts of those events may not be entirely accurate…. he he…Pink Floyd shows had an abundance of alien creatures about them they seemed to dance to the music. Other people saw them to but for some reason no one took us serious when we recounted our stories to classmates at school. I can’t imagine why.

Interesting Concept , can't wait to see what it will be used for.

reply to post by Grimpachi


The flying thing in the video has a wire attached to its bottom. Wondering if it can be flown and steered without this wire.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Chamberf=6


Ehh it's ok. I would have never found this tech under aliens and UFO section.

reply to post by Aleister


I think the wire is just to supply power. It says in the article it steers itself.

I have been wondering when this sort of thing would be created.

The physical properties of air are akin to fluid dynamics in a lot of ways. We use flight-derived tech in the sea, so why not sea-derived tech in the air?

Im a little surprised it took this long! But is very neat, especially where the technology will stand some decades down the road.

EA006
reply to post by Grimpachi

 

That's awesome. What would you use it for though?

Err...thousands of little cameras hovering around would be weird spy tech.