(click here if the video isn’t working)
No, it’s not the second coming of the Flying Spaghetti Monster—but it’s just as awesome. AirJelly, a remote-controlled helium balloon, was built by engineers at the Swiss Materials Science & Technology Development (EMPA) in Dübendorf, who were inspired by the jellyfish’s endurance through evolutionary time.
The balloon weighs just under 3 pounds, including a central electric drive unit and two lithium-ion polymer accumulator batteries, which can be completely charged in half an hour—beating every Earth-bound remote-controlled car from my childhood by about seven hours. The jelly is also the first air balloon to move by peristaltic motion—the same way that gets food to your stomach after you swallow. (And the same way it comes back up, if something goes wrong.) In this case, peristalsis is achieved by those eight tentacles, which consist of ribs powered by “fluidic muscles,” (pdf) and allows AirJelly to move in any spatial direction.
Get more information here (pdf) about the mechanics—not, to my great sadness, about how to obtain one.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
omg. want. want. want now.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
That has to be one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. I will be adding that to my Christmas wish list.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:10 am
…Sorry, a few mistakes in the description of this project: AirJelly was developed and designed by Festo (a German company for factory automation) in cooperation with effekt technik (also a German company sepecialized in uncommon flying objects)-check their website at: www.effekt-technik.de
AirJelly is powered by an electric motor-the fluidic muscle mentioned above is a product by Festo, but it´s not integrated here. If you´d like to see other projects of the Bionic Learning Network, check out www.festo.com/bionic