Ocyropsis-Inspired Fast-Swimming Transparent Soft Robots

Marine creatures achieve effective survival in unstructured ocean environments via fast swimming or transparent camouflage. Aqueous soft robots, capable of reproducing soft features of marine creatures, have the advantages of safe biological interaction, high environmental adaptation, and noise-free when compared with traditional rigid robots. Yet, there exists a persistent challenge to develop both fast and energy-efficient aqueous soft robots that can achieve better underwater operation or exploration. Enlightened by the morphology and swimming strategy of Ocyropsis — a jellyfish-like creature, Ocyropsis-inspired robots (i.e., Ocyrobots) that merge electro-hydraulic actuation and Ocyropsis-type rowing mechanisms to achieve high-performance underwater locomotion are developed. Ocyrobots demonstrate a record-high speed of 1.1 body length/s, which is approximately three times of previously reported fastest jellyfish-like robots while maintaining a low power consumption of 37 mW. Ocyrobots also exhibit an impressive turning speed of 34° s⁻¹, enabling dexterous locomotion and effective obstacle avoidance in confined underwater scenarios. Attributed to the self-developed highly reliable polymer-based ionic gel, Ocyrobots possess remarkable advantages of full transparency and high durability, which improves their lifetime and reduces potential disturbances to underwater ecosystems. The unprecedented biomimetic idea in this study is essential in enlightening the prototyping of future aqueous soft robotics.