University of Adelaide engineering students win Ericsson Innovation Awards for cuttlefish-inspired autonomous underwater vehicle Sepiida-I
Four beach boys from Adelaide have won a global technology competition with their incredible invention: a cuttlefish-inspired autonomous underwater vehicle.
SA News
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Inspired by cuttlefish, a “beach-dwelling team” from Adelaide University has won a global technology competition with its autonomous underwater vehicle.
Mechanical and aerospace engineering student Dannion Hards says the “Sepiida-I” has a unique propulsion system based on two flexible membranes, like the fins of the cuttlefish. It operates at depths of up to 50m.
“This achievement represents hundreds of hours of hard work, many meetings and lots of late nights spent over eight months developing this project,” he said.
The team – Mr Hards and fellow students Joshua Tatton, Daniel Schoell and Jeet Patel – hopes to create a commercially viable autonomous underwater vehicle that will help scientists with crucial data gathering from complex reef systems.
The students hope this will help reduce the effects of climate change in underwater ecosystems globally.
It has been a thrilling road to taking out the Ericsson Innovation Award in Stockholm, Sweden this week.
It began on October 31, when the invention was among more than 300 innovative projects showcased at the university’s Ingenuity 2019 expo at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
The team – described as “beach-dwelling” in its competition bio – won “most innovative project” at the expo and took out first place from the School of Mechanical Engineering. From there, it was selected as one of 15 semi-finalists in the Ericsson Innovation Awards – which attracted 2000 entries – and then the only Australian team among the competition’s four finalists before being named the eventual winner this week.
The theme of this year’s awards was “Dive Deeper”.
“This year’s challenge is to take the natural technology found within water and learn how to use it to develop innovative solutions,” the organisers said. “Dive deeper into our natural resources, into obscure opportunities, into unlikely places. Discover the natural technology within.”
Some of the world’s greatest technological achievements, including sonar, swarm logic, wind turbines even velcro, were created to mimic nature, the organisers said.
The Sepiida-I uses motors to move arms connected to a flexible membrane like the fins of the cuttlefish to create a wavelike pattern.