Pleurocystitid was a marine organism that existed virtually 450 million years in the past, lengthy earlier than the primary dinosaurs. Scientists have now constructed a soft-bodied robotic duplicate of it, which might encourage new strategies of locomotion for future robots.

Together with its bizarre look, pleurocystitid is understood for being one of many first echinoderms to be able to motion through a muscular stem-like appendage. Current-day members of the echinoderm class embrace starfish, sea urchins, sand {dollars} and brittle stars.

Led by professors Phil LeDuc and Carmel Majidi, scientists at Carnegie Mellon College’s Division of Mechanical Engineering lately got down to see precisely how pleurocystitid used its stem to maneuver throughout the ocean flooring. Using fossils as a information, they proceeded to construct a (partially) soft-bodied robotic pleurocystitid with a versatile motorized swishing stem.

Carnegie Mellon College

When the “paleobionic” gadget was examined within the lab, the researchers found that large sweeping actions of the stem labored finest for pushing the robotic ahead. What’s extra, it was additionally discovered that growing the size of the stem considerably boosted the robotic’s pace with out utilizing any extra vitality.

The findings might in the end be used to information the design of robots that rapidly however effectively transfer throughout the ocean flooring or related environments. And naturally, the examine additionally supplies worthwhile insights into how marine organisms’ strategies of locomotion have modified over hundreds of thousands of years.

“Bringing a brand new life to one thing that existed practically 500 million years in the past is thrilling in and of itself, however what actually excites us about this breakthrough is how a lot we will study from it,” stated LeDuc.

The robotic might be seen in motion, within the video under.

Supply: Carnegie Mellon College