Posted on Feb 25, 2024
An Ancient Stingray Lookalike Inspires Underwater Soft Robotics
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An Ancient Stingray Lookalike Insres Underwater Soft Robotics
Fossil animals are informing the field of soft robotics, and applications are abundant.
Around 500 million years ago, a strange ancestor of the modern sea star, sea urchin, and sand dollar swam above the Paleozoic seafloor. Classified as a pleurocystitid, the animal resembled an armored stingray in its appearance, armed with what looked like a set of swooping antennae.
One of the first of its phylum to move around autonomously, its segmented tail swept from side-to-side to swim forward. Robotics researcher Richard Desatnik and colleagues identified the creature’s method of movement in 2023, after constructing robot replicas of the creature to simulate its swim.
Published in PNAS in November 2023 and set to appear in a presentation at the 68th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in February 2024, the researchers’ work testifies to the wide variety of applications of ancient-animal-inspired robotics.
Fossil animals are informing the field of soft robotics, and applications are abundant.
Around 500 million years ago, a strange ancestor of the modern sea star, sea urchin, and sand dollar swam above the Paleozoic seafloor. Classified as a pleurocystitid, the animal resembled an armored stingray in its appearance, armed with what looked like a set of swooping antennae.
One of the first of its phylum to move around autonomously, its segmented tail swept from side-to-side to swim forward. Robotics researcher Richard Desatnik and colleagues identified the creature’s method of movement in 2023, after constructing robot replicas of the creature to simulate its swim.
Published in PNAS in November 2023 and set to appear in a presentation at the 68th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in February 2024, the researchers’ work testifies to the wide variety of applications of ancient-animal-inspired robotics.
An Ancient Stingray Lookalike Inspires Underwater Soft Robotics
Posted from discovermagazine.com
Science
Technology
Paleontology
Robots
Animals
Edited 3 mo ago
Posted 3 mo ago
Responses: 3
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Never mind soft robotics … that mamy-jammer was ARMORED … now that’s right up my alley! Built to take on the enemy!
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A1C Medrick "Rick" DeVaney
LTC Marc King -
I'll Delete These... ~~ Just Returned "Edit" For The Posts Isn't Available..~~
~!
They Appear To Be Inadvertently In Here.
But Don't Recall Where They Should Have Been..
I'll Delete These... ~~ Just Returned "Edit" For The Posts Isn't Available..~~
~!
They Appear To Be Inadvertently In Here.
But Don't Recall Where They Should Have Been..
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LTC Marc King
A1C Medrick "Rick" DeVaney - Good - I consider you a sole mate on RP we are on the same sheet of music and would never disrespect you!
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A1C Medrick "Rick" DeVaney
LTC Marc King -
Thanks Coronal... No Disrespect Intended;
None What-So-Ever. Please Accept My Apologies
Thanks Coronal... No Disrespect Intended;
None What-So-Ever. Please Accept My Apologies
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No surprise, Mother Nature is always adapting her subjects to more efficient forms of themselves.
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A1C Medrick "Rick" DeVaney
Mother Nature Will Always Win... No Matter How Long It Takes.
And She'll Be HERE, Long After The Human Race Is GONE.
And She'll Be HERE, Long After The Human Race Is GONE.
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A1C Medrick "Rick" DeVaney
~~~~~~ We Are NOT Alone, And We've NEVER Been Alone.~~~~
at the very least, that life on Earth very likely goes back a very long time: to when Earth was less than 10% its current age. Most have assumed this implies that life arose very early on in Earth’s history, perhaps even during its most primordial stages. But there’s another possibility that’s even more fascinating: perhaps the life that we find on Earth didn’t originate on Earth, but was formed prior to it.
Perhaps, once Earth formed, there were extraordinarily primitive organisms that came to Earth, found they could survive and reproduce here, and that’s how life began on our planet. As wacky and wild as this idea sounds, it’s a hypothesis that we not only cannot rule out, but one that has a wide variety of indirect support that bolsters its plausibility.
The idea that Earth was “born” with life already on it really, truly could be the case. Here’s why this is a scientifically interesting scenario to explore.
at the very least, that life on Earth very likely goes back a very long time: to when Earth was less than 10% its current age. Most have assumed this implies that life arose very early on in Earth’s history, perhaps even during its most primordial stages. But there’s another possibility that’s even more fascinating: perhaps the life that we find on Earth didn’t originate on Earth, but was formed prior to it.
Perhaps, once Earth formed, there were extraordinarily primitive organisms that came to Earth, found they could survive and reproduce here, and that’s how life began on our planet. As wacky and wild as this idea sounds, it’s a hypothesis that we not only cannot rule out, but one that has a wide variety of indirect support that bolsters its plausibility.
The idea that Earth was “born” with life already on it really, truly could be the case. Here’s why this is a scientifically interesting scenario to explore.
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