Beautiful! it would be nice to have them just floating around the city.
Brownian, OMsays
Oh, like wow. I totally just had a flashback to those Man O’ War jelly thingies in NetStorm.
daveausays
The Pharyngulyte Air Force.
momkatsays
It made me happy, and I can see how you’d find it cool, what with it’s octopodian structure, but is it one of those “just because we can things” or does it have a useful purpose?
a_ray_in_dilbert_spacesays
Can I haz?
Gregory Greenwoodsays
“Yeah, they look all petty now, but just you wait ’til they are floating serenely overhead, vapourising everything the pass over with underslung death rays! Damn egg-heads with their damn air-squids of death! Not in my town, no siree!”
Come on, we all know there are survivalist whackos paranoid enough to believe just about anything. Even air-squids of death…
Back in the land of the sane, it is restful to look at. They should probably be left floating about as a public art installation.
And as a herald of the rise of out tentacled overlord, of course.
omnipasjesays
I feel like such a girl.
I started watching the video and the first thing i exclaimed was.. “Oohhh.., Pretty!”.
“Oooh! Pretty!” was my first reaction too. Maybe it’s a gay thing. Er, for me, not you. And yeah, my next thought was, “Any practical application for it?” ~wjs
bbgunn071679says
Can’t imagine that flotilla staying together very long if launched on the windy northern prairie. Doesn’t appear to have any guidance control other than in the vertical axis.
charleysays
does it have a useful purpose?
The purpose is to promote Festo automation components and systems. It’s a slightly under-filled helium balloon with clever vertical propulsion.
cameronsays
I’m neither gay nor a girl, but my first reaction was ‘oooh pretty!’ as well. With a healthy dose of ‘oooh neat!’ in the mix also.
chgo_lizsays
Well, I *am* a girl, but not the kind who usually goes around saying “oooh, pretty!”
Except in this case. Normally I click through videos quickly. This one, I sat in rapt attention.
Oooh pretty, indeed!
Mattirsays
Daughter spawn and I watched it twice and speculated about whether her Girl Scout troop could build one. We definitely one, but it would be better if it had sparkly unicorn images on it. That might disguise the death ray features.
Mattirsays
Unfortunately, Festo’s US website has no information on the pre-assembled build-your-own-cnidarian kit. Rats.
SteveMsays
I can’t see the video, but is this the same company with the giant flying helium penguins? Those are even more cool as they self-navigate and avoid obstacles and each other.
Darrell Esays
Yes, very cool. The same outfit that makes these has some other types of airborne robots as well.
And yes, they do serve several useful purposes. They are test beds for new robot propulsion concepts geared towards high efficiency. They are also test beds for autonomous control hardware systems and software, and sensor systems.
And no, they are not constrained to only changes along the vertical axis.
I can’t seem to find a clip of it, but there is a scene from a past documentary where many robots of two or three differnt types made by this outfit are all floating/flying around together while all autonomously avoiding obstacles, including each other.
A lighter than air (or neutrally buoyant) robotic system with highly efficient propulsion able to keep itself on track and out of trouble, and with much longer duration than other airborne robotic systems would be a great asset in all kinds of endeavors from science, to industry, to emergency services and more.
IslandBrewersays
Oooh, pretty!
I want them with colors and luminescence, too!
>.>
<.<
And deathrays ...
ntlarsensays
I agree that these probably wouldn’t fare too well outside but imagine them as ad-pillars in a mall. Or carrying surveillance equipment. Or both!
Also, they are just effin’ cool so why not build it?
Or how about: PharyngulAir – We’ll fly you there, winds permitting.
Maslabsays
Or how about: PharyngulAir – We’ll fly you there, winds permitting.
Prove to us prayer works: Pray that the wind blows fair and that that’s not a mountain we’re heading towards.
Checked out some of their other videos. Really cool.
ursulamajorsays
“What are we going to do today, PZ?”
“Same thing we do every day. Try to take over the world.”
NetStorm! I thought I must be the only person to have played / remember playing that game. My first online gaming experience. It was magical. And artful. ;p
charleysays
And no, they are not constrained to only changes along the vertical axis.
Really? How do the jellies propel themselves horizontally?
Gregory Greenwoodsays
ursulamajor @ 21;
“… To prove their tentacled worth,
They’ll overthrow the Earth,
They’re Hammy,
They’re Hammy,
They’re Hammy and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain!”
And-U-Saysays
1) Really cool, a nice work of art. I could see those things in a variety of calm environments. Nice technological development.
2) On the other hamd, what does something like this have over a standard helium baloon, other than being a lot more easy to damage?
Gregory Greenwoodsays
Yes, they are pretty, but are they art?
*runs*
Maslabsays
“… To prove their tentacled worth,
They’ll overthrow the Earth,
They’re Hammy,
They’re Hammy,
They’re Hammy and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain!”
Narf!
spacefallsays
These would be great in stressful environments, like major airports and very large shopping malls (or is it just me that finds the latter stressful?). They’re so soothing to watch that I bet it would calm a lot of anxious, tired people down, as well as adding something apparently very “ooh, pretty” to notoriously ugly spaces.
Let’s install cameras and launch some of these to Mars.
I observe a “dangly bit” that seems to be inside: a plumb-bob? something like that could provide attitude sensing, and allow control via differential “arm drive.”
As far as making it more practical, it needs a way to make-up buoyancy gas lost through diffusion: I suggest an on-board reserve system to provide hydrogen; the buoyancy gas could be initially He, partly replaced with H2 over time, or it could be H2 all the time. The H2 could be electrolytically generated from an on-board water or hydride store and electricity from photovoltaics. In terrestrial atmosphere, a fuel cell could use some of the H2 to provide power at night. Incidentally, CH4 is also buoyant, and makes a satisfying sound when the fuse finally reaches the floating bag….
Making it opaque could take advantage of radiation heating for buoyancy (wasn’t this proposed for a Mars probe that would land at night?), but would look way less cool. Mever-mind Black Helicopters, beware of the dreaded brain-sucking Black Air Jellies….
If someone would please send me a half-dozen of these, I’ll get right to work….
Brownian, OMsays
It was magical. And artful.
Shush. PZ or Ebert might be reading.
(The wikipedia article says it’s abandonware and still played online. I wonder if I’ve still got the CD kickin’ around somewhere.)
IslandBrewersays
Yes, they are pretty, but are they art?
They are art which will kill you if you resist!
Now, where are those deathray assembly instructions?
Gus Snarpsays
They’ve got more videos on Youtube of other airborne (and aquatic) creations:
Controlling AirJelly’s motion in three-dimensional space is effected
by weight displacement. For this purpose, a pendulum is set in
motion by two actuators in the X and Y directions. The actuators
are positioned at the jellyfish’s “north pole” and are proportionally
controlled. The pendulum is 55 centimetres long. AirJelly’s centre
of mass is displaced in the direction of the pendulum’s motion; the
jellyfish then moves in the same direction. By means of this peristaltic
forward motion, AirJelly can move in any spatial direction.
thedarwinreportsays
But what of the hamster population?
Multicellularsays
Cool, they have rays too!
Total geek request: change the name from AirJelly’s to CnidAirians.
I’d buy one and name it Bob.
charleysays
@Darell E.
Cool, thanks.
Darrell Esays
@Charley
Happy to share. I couldn’t remember off hand so I had to look it up.
Blondinsays
Is it too much to ask for frickin’ laser beams mounted on top?!
IslandBrewersays
… and an eyeball? A big nefarious-looking eyeball.
Fsays
OrchidGrowinMan @ 29:
Yes, yes. All very good. But the Death Rays?
eyespysays
OK, sorry, HuffPo item, I swear I only read it because it’s a pretty good news roundup, but you gotta see this:
It’s “The Prisoner” and “Rover” all over again, but with a vertical component to it this time around.
'Tis Himself, OMsays
The death ray function appears to be deactivated in this video.
chgo_lizsays
Wait….no one has said it yet?
SNINY!
Dahansays
Damn! I am so… Damn!
Egaeussays
Fake! I mean really, it’s not even remotely gelatinous.
And-U-Saysays
The air pressure on Mars is only 1/100 that of Earth. So even though you have 1/3 the gravity, you will need a buoyancy to weight ratio 30 times that of Earth to get something to float on Mars. That’s a pretty big ratio, not impossible, but probably impractical when you have little fins hanging off of it.
kriskodiskosays
PZ Myers arms himself for the next creation/evolution war.
Ichthyicsays
If someone hasn’t already made a scaled down version for sale as a toy, someone better the fuck get right on that and patent it today!
as to art display, there is a big room in the art museum section of TePapa Museum here in Wellington that would be a fantastic place to set up a flotilla of these as an interactive art exhibit.
Ichthyicsays
…oh, and someone add some nematocysts to the toy version, just for fun.
uuaschbaersays
Awesome in the original sense of the word. Freakin’ awesome in the novel sense of the word.
The progress in robotics and robotic controll is remarkable and much better looking then those we used to see on old Analog covers
there may be hope yet
Marie the Bookwyrmsays
This is so cool. And, yes, I’d like to see a flock of these drifting around a shopping mall–especially one of those multi-story malls.
BTW, does anybody else think those ‘penguins’ look more like narwhals? Hey, don’t hit me! There’s no song link here!
happy_heyokasays
Yay, something pretty and vaguely in my area.
Darrell E – great link; PDF blows away some of my guesses (ick, the facts!)
bbgunn071679 #10
“Doesn’t appear to have any guidance control other than in the vertical axis.”
Using the pendulum for navigation is interesting… note the linkages underneath all seem to be joined; this is probably a compromise for weight… (total weight 1.3Kg – wow!)
A little bit more weight and cpu power would probably give you independent control of each of the tentacles (?)
No provision for altitude adjustment (bladders to change volume etc)
Very cool project.
Where can I sign up for this job? ;-)
John Scanlon FCDsays
Ichthyic: A penguin display would probably be more apt than jellies for an NZ museum, but with a little modification we could go Mesozoic and have a pod of PlesiAirsaurs. A few smallish ones and a couple of huge KronAirsaurs…
DLCsays
Now that’s cool.
no real practical use, but cool!
Bribasesays
Humanity’s inevitable doom has never looked so serene
Beautiful! it would be nice to have them just floating around the city.
Oh, like wow. I totally just had a flashback to those Man O’ War jelly thingies in NetStorm.
The Pharyngulyte Air Force.
It made me happy, and I can see how you’d find it cool, what with it’s octopodian structure, but is it one of those “just because we can things” or does it have a useful purpose?
Can I haz?
“Yeah, they look all petty now, but just you wait ’til they are floating serenely overhead, vapourising everything the pass over with underslung death rays! Damn egg-heads with their damn air-squids of death! Not in my town, no siree!”
Come on, we all know there are survivalist whackos paranoid enough to believe just about anything. Even air-squids of death…
Back in the land of the sane, it is restful to look at. They should probably be left floating about as a public art installation.
And as a herald of the rise of out tentacled overlord, of course.
I feel like such a girl.
I started watching the video and the first thing i exclaimed was.. “Oohhh.., Pretty!”.
:)
I want them in colors! And with luminescence!
“Oooh! Pretty!” was my first reaction too. Maybe it’s a gay thing. Er, for me, not you. And yeah, my next thought was, “Any practical application for it?” ~wjs
Can’t imagine that flotilla staying together very long if launched on the windy northern prairie. Doesn’t appear to have any guidance control other than in the vertical axis.
The purpose is to promote Festo automation components and systems. It’s a slightly under-filled helium balloon with clever vertical propulsion.
I’m neither gay nor a girl, but my first reaction was ‘oooh pretty!’ as well. With a healthy dose of ‘oooh neat!’ in the mix also.
Well, I *am* a girl, but not the kind who usually goes around saying “oooh, pretty!”
Except in this case. Normally I click through videos quickly. This one, I sat in rapt attention.
Oooh pretty, indeed!
Daughter spawn and I watched it twice and speculated about whether her Girl Scout troop could build one. We definitely one, but it would be better if it had sparkly unicorn images on it. That might disguise the death ray features.
Unfortunately, Festo’s US website has no information on the pre-assembled build-your-own-cnidarian kit. Rats.
I can’t see the video, but is this the same company with the giant flying helium penguins? Those are even more cool as they self-navigate and avoid obstacles and each other.
Yes, very cool. The same outfit that makes these has some other types of airborne robots as well.
And yes, they do serve several useful purposes. They are test beds for new robot propulsion concepts geared towards high efficiency. They are also test beds for autonomous control hardware systems and software, and sensor systems.
And no, they are not constrained to only changes along the vertical axis.
I can’t seem to find a clip of it, but there is a scene from a past documentary where many robots of two or three differnt types made by this outfit are all floating/flying around together while all autonomously avoiding obstacles, including each other.
A lighter than air (or neutrally buoyant) robotic system with highly efficient propulsion able to keep itself on track and out of trouble, and with much longer duration than other airborne robotic systems would be a great asset in all kinds of endeavors from science, to industry, to emergency services and more.
Oooh, pretty!
I want them with colors and luminescence, too!
>.>
<.< And deathrays ...
I agree that these probably wouldn’t fare too well outside but imagine them as ad-pillars in a mall. Or carrying surveillance equipment. Or both!
Also, they are just effin’ cool so why not build it?
Or how about: PharyngulAir – We’ll fly you there, winds permitting.
Prove to us prayer works: Pray that the wind blows fair and that that’s not a mountain we’re heading towards.
Checked out some of their other videos. Really cool.
“What are we going to do today, PZ?”
“Same thing we do every day. Try to take over the world.”
@#2, Brownian:
NetStorm! I thought I must be the only person to have played / remember playing that game. My first online gaming experience. It was magical. And artful. ;p
Really? How do the jellies propel themselves horizontally?
ursulamajor @ 21;
“… To prove their tentacled worth,
They’ll overthrow the Earth,
They’re Hammy,
They’re Hammy,
They’re Hammy and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain!”
1) Really cool, a nice work of art. I could see those things in a variety of calm environments. Nice technological development.
2) On the other hamd, what does something like this have over a standard helium baloon, other than being a lot more easy to damage?
Yes, they are pretty, but are they art?
*runs*
They’ll overthrow the Earth,
They’re Hammy,
They’re Hammy,
They’re Hammy and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain!”
Narf!
These would be great in stressful environments, like major airports and very large shopping malls (or is it just me that finds the latter stressful?). They’re so soothing to watch that I bet it would calm a lot of anxious, tired people down, as well as adding something apparently very “ooh, pretty” to notoriously ugly spaces.
You can watch the penguin one here, but it might count as sacrilage around here if you prefer them. ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPGgl5VH5go
Beautiful.
But I’m an engineer.
Let’s install cameras and launch some of these to Mars.
I observe a “dangly bit” that seems to be inside: a plumb-bob? something like that could provide attitude sensing, and allow control via differential “arm drive.”
As far as making it more practical, it needs a way to make-up buoyancy gas lost through diffusion: I suggest an on-board reserve system to provide hydrogen; the buoyancy gas could be initially He, partly replaced with H2 over time, or it could be H2 all the time. The H2 could be electrolytically generated from an on-board water or hydride store and electricity from photovoltaics. In terrestrial atmosphere, a fuel cell could use some of the H2 to provide power at night. Incidentally, CH4 is also buoyant, and makes a satisfying sound when the fuse finally reaches the floating bag….
Making it opaque could take advantage of radiation heating for buoyancy (wasn’t this proposed for a Mars probe that would land at night?), but would look way less cool. Mever-mind Black Helicopters, beware of the dreaded brain-sucking Black Air Jellies….
If someone would please send me a half-dozen of these, I’ll get right to work….
Shush. PZ or Ebert might be reading.
(The wikipedia article says it’s abandonware and still played online. I wonder if I’ve still got the CD kickin’ around somewhere.)
They are art which will kill you if you resist!
Now, where are those deathray assembly instructions?
They’ve got more videos on Youtube of other airborne (and aquatic) creations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxPzodKQays
Just add a water bed, and Adriana Lima, and I’ll ride in the dang thang.
Anti-Escape Orb!
From a Festo pdf on the AirJelly.
But what of the hamster population?
Cool, they have rays too!
Total geek request: change the name from AirJelly’s to CnidAirians.
I’d buy one and name it Bob.
@Darell E.
Cool, thanks.
@Charley
Happy to share. I couldn’t remember off hand so I had to look it up.
Is it too much to ask for frickin’ laser beams mounted on top?!
… and an eyeball? A big nefarious-looking eyeball.
OrchidGrowinMan @ 29:
Yes, yes. All very good. But the Death Rays?
OK, sorry, HuffPo item, I swear I only read it because it’s a pretty good news roundup, but you gotta see this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/13/octopus-kills-shark-video_n_575117.html
Go watch it. Now.
It’s “The Prisoner” and “Rover” all over again, but with a vertical component to it this time around.
The death ray function appears to be deactivated in this video.
Wait….no one has said it yet?
SNINY!
Damn! I am so… Damn!
Fake! I mean really, it’s not even remotely gelatinous.
The air pressure on Mars is only 1/100 that of Earth. So even though you have 1/3 the gravity, you will need a buoyancy to weight ratio 30 times that of Earth to get something to float on Mars. That’s a pretty big ratio, not impossible, but probably impractical when you have little fins hanging off of it.
PZ Myers arms himself for the next creation/evolution war.
If someone hasn’t already made a scaled down version for sale as a toy, someone better the fuck get right on that and patent it today!
as to art display, there is a big room in the art museum section of TePapa Museum here in Wellington that would be a fantastic place to set up a flotilla of these as an interactive art exhibit.
…oh, and someone add some nematocysts to the toy version, just for fun.
Awesome in the original sense of the word. Freakin’ awesome in the novel sense of the word.
The progress in robotics and robotic controll is remarkable and much better looking then those we used to see on old Analog covers
there may be hope yet
This is so cool. And, yes, I’d like to see a flock of these drifting around a shopping mall–especially one of those multi-story malls.
BTW, does anybody else think those ‘penguins’ look more like narwhals? Hey, don’t hit me! There’s no song link here!
Yay, something pretty and vaguely in my area.
Darrell E – great link; PDF blows away some of my guesses (ick, the facts!)
bbgunn071679 #10
Using the pendulum for navigation is interesting… note the linkages underneath all seem to be joined; this is probably a compromise for weight… (total weight 1.3Kg – wow!)
A little bit more weight and cpu power would probably give you independent control of each of the tentacles (?)
No provision for altitude adjustment (bladders to change volume etc)
Very cool project.
Where can I sign up for this job? ;-)
Ichthyic: A penguin display would probably be more apt than jellies for an NZ museum, but with a little modification we could go Mesozoic and have a pod of PlesiAirsaurs. A few smallish ones and a couple of huge KronAirsaurs…
Now that’s cool.
no real practical use, but cool!
Humanity’s inevitable doom has never looked so serene
B