New 3D-printed device captures sea creatures without harming them

Ocean creatures such as jellyfish or octopuses are difficult to capture, due to which they are often neglected in studies. Engineers have found a solution for that by 3D printing a material to capture such ocean dwellers without hurting them.

Engineers and marine biologists have designed a 3D-printed, 12-sided origami-inspired trap that they call the ‘Rotary Actuated Dodecahedron’ (RAD). The equipment can fold itself around squids and octopuses without even hurting them.

Designer David Gruber expressed, “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.”

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Video Courtesy: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

As explained by New Atlas, when any small, delicate creature is located in front of the device, it gets safely captured within the transparent box as it folds into shape, letting scientists to study it using cameras and then letting go by unfolding the device.

Previous materials used to capture these creatures often heightened the risk of damaging them. With RAD, sea creatures can be safely captured at depth of up to 11km, or scaled up to grab larger organisms, without the need to maim or kill the creature, as per Popular Mechanics.

At present, the device is manually operated, but the team is positive that it could be adapted to become an automated trap, using lures to attract, sensors to sense approaching creatures, and to trigger the claw when the animals are close enough to be captured.

David Gruber told The Verge, “The dream is to enclose delicate deep-sea animals, take 3D imagery that includes properties like hardness, 3D-print that animal at the surface, and also have a ‘toothbrush’ tickle the organism to obtain its full genome. Then, we’d release it.”

Moreover, the conceiver of the technology Zhi Ern Teoh dreams for this technique to be used for space exploration some day. “This folding could also be well-suited to be used in space, which is similar to the deep ocean in that it's a low-gravity, inhospitable environment that makes operating any device challenging.” He continued, “That is one of my dreams. If I could design something that deploys in space — either deploys in space, or unfolds, or collects in space — that would be pretty cool.”

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