These robotic units called RoboSalps, after their animal namesakes, have been engineered to operate in unknown and extreme environments such as extra-terrestrial oceans.
Although salps resemble jellyfish with their semi-transparent barrel-shaped bodies, they belong to the family of Tunicata and have a complex life cycle, changing between solitary and aggregate generations where they connect to form colonies. RoboSalps have similarly light, tubular bodies and can link to each other to form ‘colonies’ which gives them new capabilities that can only be achieved because they work together.
Researcher Valentina Lo Gatto of Bristol’s Department of Aerospace Engineering is leading the study. She is also a student at the EPSRC Centre of Doctoral Training in Future Autonomous and Robotic Systems (FARSCOPE CDT).