Ancient creature 'resurrected' in soft robot form

Pleurocystis is a marine creature that existed nearly 450 million years ago, long before the first dinosaurs. According to the latest paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University used computational simulations and soft robots to give Pleurocystis a new "life" - using fossil clues to design Soft robotic replicas of Platycystis cysts. This helps to understand the movement and evolution of animals and further explains the basic principles of biology and nature.

Machine replica of Platycystis is provided by Carnegie Mellon University School of Engineering

Modern humans have walked on the earth for about 300,000 years, but in the long history of the earth, this seemingly long time is relatively short. In fact, humans have only been on Earth for 0.007% of Earth’s history. To broaden their understanding of historical organisms, researchers are introducing a new field of study, paleobionics, which aims to use robots with flexible electronics and soft materials to understand the biomechanical factors driving evolution in extinct organisms.

Pleurocystis is known for its peculiar appearance and was one of the first echinoderms to use stem-like appendages for locomotion. Members of the class Echinodermata also include starfish, sea urchins, sand dollars, and brittle stars

The team used fossils as a design guide and combined 3D printed components and polymers to simulate the robot's flexible columnar structure and achieve seafloor movement. Their study demonstrated that Pleurocystis moved on the seafloor using propelling stalk-like appendages, and found that large-scale sweeping movements may be its most efficient method. Additionally, they found that increasing the length of the stem-like appendage significantly increased the animal's movement speed

Researchers say they plan to use soft robotics technology to "re-create" more extinct creatures to increase their understanding of biological evolution

Science and Technology Daily reported that in order not to change the original meaning, the content needs to be rewritten into Chinese

The above is the detailed content of Ancient creature 'resurrected' in soft robot form. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!