A Pokemon-Like Bot Is Used To Collect Squids and Jellyfish
Hardcore science and the popular culture are constantly pulling from each other. The studies of paleontology and genetics inspired the Jurassic Park novels and films. Johnny Depp‘s title character from the Tim Burton film Edward Scissorhands inspired the naming of Kooteninchela deppi, a clawed sea-dwelling arthropod, stretching 1.5 inches in length, which lived over 500 million years ago. The list goes on and on.
One of the most recent instances of science drawing inspiration from pop culture is what’s being called a “Pokeball robot.” The game-inspired title refers to a machine that can come in contact and even collect specimens of delicate ocean-dwelling organisms such as jellyfish.
The device is a result of the collaboration of a number of engineers, biologists, and other professionals. It’s been built to approach and gently grab hold of various sea creatures and do it safely.
The team that ran tests on it have called it a Rotary Actuated Dodecahedron, or RAD for short. (When all the joints are folded into a hollow container for capturing specimens, the container has 12 facets.) In its test runs, the RAD, or “Pokeball,” successfully gathered jellyfish and squids without causing them bodily damage.
Editor’s Note: Originally published at OIAI’s main page here.
