A robotic hand by Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and Baruch College at CUNY has been invented designed to hold even the most delicate of objects like the jellyfish.
Jellyfishes are 95% made up of liquid and are very difficult to handle without them crumpling apart.
The reason behind the creation of this robot hand was the recent research discovery that 5% of jellyfishes’ remaining part that isn’t water contains green fluorescent protein or GFP that could help combat aging.
The hand can pump water into soft finger-like tubes to allow a gentle grip needed to handle jellyfishes.
The gripper’s six “fingers” are made from thin, flat strips of silicone with a hollow channel inside, bonded to a layer of flexible but stiff polymer nanofibers.
The invention was successful in capturing jellyfishes in its palm which were unable to break free until the gripper was depressurized.