"Essentially, we recreated all the key features that squids use for high-speed swimming," said Michael T. Tolley, one of the paper's senior authors and a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego. "This is the first untethered robot that can generate jet pulses for rapid locomotion like the squid and can achieve these jet pulses by changing its body shape, which improves swimming efficiency." This squid robot is made mostly from soft materials such as acrylic polymer, with a few rigid, 3D printed and laser cut parts. Using soft robots in underwater exploration is important to protect fish and coral, which could be damaged by rigid robots. But soft robots tend to move slowly and have difficulty maneuvering.

Robots typically aren't good choices for studying deep sea animals like jellyfish -- not when their light, noise and movement can scare away those creatures. Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution may have a far less intrusive option, though. Their planned Mesobot observer is designed to move as quietly as possible while collecting data about aquatic life. The four-foot-tall robot moves using six large but low-power thrusters that won't cause a stir, and its LED lights can switch to red (which many deep sea species can't see). A two-day running time should also minimize attention-getting trips to the surface.