Cited by 35Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanismsSoft Robotics and ApplicationsMarine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology

Field Testing of Biohybrid Robotic Jellyfish to Demonstrate Enhanced Swimming Speeds

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Xu, Nicole W., Townsend, James P., Costello, John H., Colin, Sean P., Gemmell, Brad J., Dabiri, John O.·2020·Biomimetics

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Biohybrid robotic designs incorporating live animals and self-contained microelectronic systems can leverage the animals’ own metabolism to reduce power constraints and act as natural chassis and actuators with damage tolerance. Previous work established that biohybrid robotic jellyfish can exhibit enhanced speeds up to 2.8 times their baseline behavior in laboratory environments. However, it remains unknown if the results could be applied in natural, dynamic ocean environments and what factors can contribute to large animal variability. Deploying this system in the coastal waters of Massachusetts, we validate and extend prior laboratory work by demonstrating increases in jellyfish swimming speeds up to 2.3 times greater than their baseline, with absolute swimming speeds up to 6.6 ± 0.3 cm s−1. These experimental swimming speeds are predicted using a hydrodynamic model with morphological and time-dependent input parameters obtained from field experiment videos. The theoretical model can provide a basis to choose specific jellyfish with desirable traits to maximize enhancements from robotic manipulation. With future work to increase maneuverability and incorporate sensors, biohybrid robotic jellyfish can potentially be used to track environmental changes in applications for ocean monitoring.

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Crossref · 10.3390/biomimetics5040064

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  • Lab and field testing of these devices have demonstrated a nearly three-fold increase in swimming speed compared to uncontrolled swimming of the same distance.

    “Lab and field testing of these devices have demonstrated a nearly three-fold increase in swimming speed compared to uncontrolled swimming of the same distance.”

    From Measurements and modeling of swimming speed dependence on stroke frequency in scyphozoan jellyfish (2026) · cites this paper as [24]

    The Abstract reports laboratory speeds up to 2.8 times baseline, but field speeds only up to 2.3 times baseline. The Results (§3.1) define the comparison as swimming speed relative to an inactive-controller baseline; the paper does not establish a same-distance comparison. Thus the nearly three-fold figure fits the laboratory result, not both lab and field testing. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Jellyfish swimming stroke frequency can be controlled in freely swimming animals by implanted microelectronics that electrically stimulate the subumbrellar muscle sheet.

    “Recent work has demonstrated that jellyfish swimming stroke frequency can be controlled in freely swimming animals by implanted microelectronics that electrically stimulate the subumbrellar muscle sheet [13, 24].”
  • Biohybrid jellyfish have been proposed as a new method to enable ocean sensing.

    “Furthermore, biohybrid jellyfish have been proposed as a new method to enable ocean sensing [24].”

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Authors
Xu, N. W., Townsend, J. P., Costello, J. H., Colin, S. P., Gemmell, B. J., & Dabiri, J. O.
Affiliations
  • California Institute of Technology (US)
  • Marine Biological Laboratory (US)
  • University of South Florida (US)
Corresponding author
Xu, Nicole W.
Venue
Biomimetics
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2020-11-21
Volume
5
Issue
4
Pages
64
ISSN
2313-7673 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3098442501
Cited by
34
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1
FWCI
2.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Biomimetics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Roger Williams University - Digital Commons (Roger Williams University) (submittedVersion)
  • Open Access Server of the Woods Hole Scientific Community (Woods Hole Scientific Community) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
National Science Foundation (Graduate Research Fellowship Program)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanisms
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Soft Robotics and Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Marine Invertebrate Physiology and Ecology
Keywords
biohybrid robotics, jellyfish locomotion, hydrodynamic modeling, field testing, oceanographic monitoring, bio-inspired actuators

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