This post was first written in 2021. At the time a robot with a mode of propulsion based on a cuttlefish seems almost like science fiction to me. Now, in 2026, even though there are so many robots doing such amazing things, this still is amazing to me. And the advances in this technology are quite impressive. Even if just for fun, check out the two videos below.
I was just reading an article in the Economist that compared Nature’s designs for moving animals through water with how seafaring vessels have been engineered. The article points out that while one might think “bigger is better” when it comes to propellers for ships, that is not the case for the simple reasons that they take up too much space in the hull and risk snagging the seabed. I imagine shallow ports would also be a hinderance for giant propellers. Therefore the larger ships become, the more inefficient their means of propulsion are.
This is another area where Biomimicry is providing a more efficient solution than what we have devised ourselves. A New York based company called Pliant Energy Systems has developed a prototype robot that has fins that mimic the mantle of a cuttlefish. From an environmentalist’s perspective, one of the most exciting areas where this technology could be useful is anywhere humans want to get near the seafloor without disturbing it, for example coral reef inspection. They claim they system allows the robot to swim like a ray, crawl like a millipede, jet like a squid, and slide like a snake. And it also works on land, including snow and ice! Let’s hope giant Squid don’t learn how to do that.
Imagine if, one day, this technology was used on all the ships criss-crossing the ocean, the loud rumblings of propellers replaced by the relative silence of rippling fins. It would be such a gift to whales and other sea creatures who live by their ability to communicate with each other.