Rotary Actuated Dodecahedron for study of Delicate Sea Creatures

By admin On Sep 23, 2018

Delicate Sea Creatures can now be safely trapped inside a folding polyhedral enclosure without causing them any harm by using an Origami-inspired sampler developed by researchers from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study according to a research published on July 18, 2018 in Science Robotics.

The Oceans are the largest and least-explored environment on the Earth and estimated to hold up to a million species within its deepest waters that have yet to be described. Many of these organisms like Jellyfish, Squid, and Octopuses that have soft, delicate bodies are difficult to capture for study with existing underwater tools, which too frequently damage or destroy them. Like an underwater poke-ball, this Origami-inspired sampling device named Rotary Actuated Dodecahedron (RAD) folds up into a container for capturing delicate marine organisms, enables easy catch and release of such delicate underwater organisms.

David Gruber, collaborating author of the research said, “We approach these animals as if they are works of art: Would we cut pieces out of the ‘Mona Lisa’ to study it? No — we’d use the most innovative tools available. These deep-sea organisms, some being thousands of years old, deserve to be treated with a similar gentleness when we’re interacting with them.” “We’d like to add cameras and sensors to the sampler so that, in the future, we can capture an animal, collect lots of data about it like its size, material properties, and even its genome, and then let it go, almost like an underwater alien abduction.” “The hope is to describe new species and learn and interact with the deep sea in a non-invasive fashion.”

Rotary Actuated Dodecahedron (RAD) sampler has five origami-inspired “petals” arranged around a central point.
When RAD is brought near a creature underwater, a single motor folds its 3-D-printed petals around an animal, enclosing the organism in a hollow dodecahedron, a kind of polyhedron with a dozen pentagonal facets that folds up to safely capture marine organisms like jellyfish.
RAD’s petals have soft edges to help protect animals.
RAD can be attached to any remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
Pilot of the ROV uses cameras to position the sampler near a sea creature of interest and then tells the operator of the sampler to close the sampler, entrapping the creature.
RAD was tested by the researchers at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, where it successfully collected and released moon jellyfish underwater.
They also modified it so it could withstand the open sea, and then mounted it on a ROV from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California.
They tested it nearly half a mile below the ocean surface, where it successfully captured and released squid and jellyfish in their natural habitats.

Dr. Zhi Ern Teoh from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University is of the view, “Minimizing the number of actuators is the key because incorporating actuators is a relatively more complex engineering task and you have to figure out ways of attaching, powering, sensing and coordinating the folds. Therefore even though the system of linkages looks more complex, it consists entirely of revolute joints which are mechanically much simpler.” Teoh explains, “Origami, the Japanese art of folding, is used as an inspiration to help us build 3D objects from 2D sheets. We have developed a way to fold 3D shapes from its 2D net using only one actuator (component responsible for movement)”.