This 3D printed origami trap captures the delicate marine life without hurting them

Calling someone "without a thorn" is an insult on earth, but in the ocean, it is simply a sensible lifestyle choice. From jellyfish to octopus, anemones to sea cucumbers, life under the waves swarms with spongy invertebrates. But while these soft bodies are perfectly adapted to the overwhelming pressures of the ocean, they pose a problem for scientists hoping to study them. How can you recover such delicate organisms without damaging them?

An answer might lie in the Japanese art of origami. Inspired by traditional paper folding techniques, marine engineers and biologists have designed a 3D printed 12-sided origami trap that can gently bend around unsuspecting sea creatures. The device (known as Rotation-Operated Dodecahedron, or RAD for short) can be attached to the arm of an underwater rover and remotely triggered to capture fresh marine life without risk.

The device has already been successfully tested, trapping small calamari, octopus and jellyfish at a depth of 700 meters in the sea. # 39; ocean. But its design is robust enough to work at depths of up to 11 kilometers, and it could easily be extended to larger organisms.

David Gruber, a marine biologist who helped design RAD, said: The Verge ] that this new technology is the key to exploring the ocean. From the 1920s, attempts to study marine life relied on nets that successfully trawled the seas for corpulent species such as fish and crustaceans. They were indiscriminate in what they captured, however, and they shredded the gelatinous life forms. New devices like vacuum samplers (which literally suck remote robot samples) can target a specific organism, but they can still damage delicate life forms.

Image: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

This means that the study of creatures at soft bodies like jellyfish and combs and tunicates were "neglected," says Gruber. They are even called the "Forgotten Fauna" for this reason. Gruber says that with the help of new technology, we are just beginning to understand the vital role that such creatures play in the ocean ecosystem. "Overall, gelatinous zooplankton represents a biomass of more than 38 billion kilograms of carbon," he says. This is about 7% of the world's total biomass (the dry weight of living organisms), or more than 100 times the total biomass of mankind.

The design of the RAD was not easy, and the device is full of small but important design touches. For example, there are gaps between the panels of the dodecahedron to prevent the pressure from accumulating inside when the marine robot makes the journey between the bottom of the ocean. and the surface. The edges of these panels are also softer than the durable plastic of the main body. (This decision was made so that the device does not inadvertently amputate marine creatures that are fighting to escape.)

But according to the mechanical engineer of the l 39; Harvard University, Zhi Ern Teoh, the main challenge was single engine. This means that the whole system has fewer points of failure and can be folded and unfolded with a single command. But that meant that Teoh and his peers had to design a complex series of links connecting each of the 12 panels of the aircraft to the central engine. These had to be light enough not to tire the engine and sturdy enough not to break the mid-mission.

Photo Kaitlyn Becker / Wyss Institute at Harvard

This origami device is just a method that is explored for capturing soft-bodied marine life. Other scientists have experimented with robot hands made from squidgy fingers that are perfect for grabbing coral. But a big advantage of this new design, say Teoh and Gruber, is its potential for modification.

As mentioned above, the basic origami mechanism could be increased to any size, allowing it to capture larger species. (Teoh says that a human-sized version could even be used for self-erecting habitats in space exploration.) While RAD is currently operated manually, it could also be transformed into an automated trap with lures to attract sea creatures. they are in the right position to be seized.

Gruber is even more ambitious. "I see this as a platform technology that we hope to continue to evolve," he says. "The dream is to lock up delicate deep sea animals, to take 3D images that include such properties as the hardness, the 3D printing of this animal on the surface, and to have one." toothbrush "that tickles the body to get its complete genome.Then we would let it go."