A New, Flying Jellyfish-like Machine
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid DynamicsUp, up in the sky: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a . . . jellyfish? That's what researchers have built -- a small vehicle whose flying motion resembles the movements of those boneless, pulsating, water-dwelling creatures. The work, which will be presented at the APS’s DFD meeting on November 24, demonstrates a new method of flight that could transport miniaturized future robots for surveillance, search-and-rescue, and monitoring of the atmosphere and traffic.