AquaJelly is a bionic jellyfish developed by Festo. It consists of a hemisphere placed above a central watertight body with eight tentacles around itself. This artificial jellyfish has electric drive unit and smart adaptive mechanism that recreates swarming behavior. The translucent hemispherical head of AquaJelly holds within itself the whole annular control board which in turn integrates pressure, light and radio sensors. Proper functioning of all units and the orientation of the tentacle propulsion is observed by a processor. The control board contains also 16 LED lights (8 white and 8 blue) which are part of the communication system between the AquaJellies.
AquaJelly has two concentric silver rings on the outside which are coated with conductive metal paint. Charging control unit that supplies AquaJelly with energy is connected to these rings. Charging stations are placed above the water surface and when the jelly fish reach one of them it is connected towards it and supplied with energy. The charging station consists of a vacuum generator with integrated contact points for energy transfers. Every AquaJelly supplies itself with electricity independently due to permanent communication with the charging station.
The central watertight body of AquaJelly houses an electric motor, the two lithium-ion polymer batteries, the actuators for the swash plate and the charging control unit.
