PARIS – Inspired by nature and by the aviation pioneers of the early 20th century, scientists in the US say they have built the world’s first “jellyfish” aircraft.
The tiny, ultra-light lab machine, weighing just 2.1 grams, is the first man-made flying object to hover and move with a motion like that of the jellyfish in water, the inventors believe.
“We were interested first of all in making a robotic insect that would be an alternative to the helicopter,” said Leif Ristroph, who works alongside Stephen Childress at New York University’s Applied Mathematics Laboratory.
“Our interest ended up being a little bit weird — it was the jellyfish.”
The jellyfish has long been admired by engineers for a simple yet efficient motion, sculpted by millions of years of evolution, that requires just a simple muscle and no brain power, just a primitive nervous system.