3D printers in middle of Pacific Ocean build soft robot parts to collect wildlife

Isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a team of engineers, roboticists and marine biologists turned to high-tech engineering in a pioneering mission.

Almost 5,000km from the coast of Australia, the crew used two 3D printers on their boat to build new components on the fly, adapting soft robot components for their remotely-operated underwater vehicle (ROV).

The DIY robots used soft grippers with two to five polyurethane ‘fingers’, opening and closing with a low-pressure hydraulic seawater pump system to gently collect organisms without harming them.

“Many of the animals we encounter in the deep-sea are new species and these soft robots allow us to delicately interact and study a more diverse suite of fauna,” said David Gruber, co-author of a new paper on the research from the City University of New York.

In such an isolated environment, obtaining new parts for the grippers would be “nearly impossible”. Instead, the team printed bespoke ‘fingernail’ extensions for the grippers overnight, based on input from the vehicle operators to help them get underneath samples sitting on hard surfaces.

“Being on a ship for a month meant that we had to be able to make anything we needed, and it turns out that the 3D printers worked really well for doing that on the boat,” said Daniel Vogt, research engineer at the Wyss Institute. “We had them running almost 24/7, and we were able to take feedback from the ROV operators about their experience using the soft grippers and make new versions overnight to address any problems.”

“By 3D printing at sea, we can innovate, on-the-fly, and come up with soft robotics to interact with soft and delicate animals that were previously unexamined - as they were too fragile,” said Gruber, presidential professor of biology and environmental science at Baruch College.

The soft grippers reportedly collected sea slugs, corals, sponges, and other marine life much more effectively and with less damage than traditional underwater sampling tools. A flexible mesh was also added to each finger to help keep samples contained within the fingers' grip.

The team is further developing the grippers, hoping to add sensors that can indicate to the ROV operator when the grippers come into contact with an organism, ‘feel’ how hard or soft it is and take other measurements. Ultimately, the goal is to capture sea creatures in the deep ocean and obtain full physical and genetic data without removing them from their native habitats.

The research was published in PLOS One.