It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a… flying jellyfish?

Yep, you read right. Those dangerous, poisonous creatures are now the center of attention at New York University, where researchers have recently developed a prototype that mimics a jellyfishes’ movements…but in the air. Meant to aide search and rescue crews and to act as environmental sensors, this automaton jellyfish could also be re-purposed for military and civilian use.

But why a jellyfish? The researchers found that critters with flapping wings spend a lot of energy and time dealing with a violent environment, having to adjust to every little gust of wind. The point was to make something that is small, but able to remain stable without much thinking.

Ironically, while this jellyfish-bot, which uses four separate wings that flap up and down to stay aloft, moves more like a moth than a jellyfish, this prototype shows that such a design is feasible, and can lead to even bigger accomplishments.

Perhaps these could be used to deliver packages to tributes in the futuristic Hunger Games, or be used just to scare children during Halloween? The possibilities for this tiny jelly-bot are endless.

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Did you get that fancy new PS4 or Xbox One you had on your Christmas wish list this year? All around the world, people are celebrating Christmas, opening presents, and having a good time. 220 miles above them, aboard the International Space Station, it seems that a little robot might also be getting what it wished for.

When asked what it wanted for Christmas, the world’s first robotic astronaut, Kirobo said, “Santa Claus will come to space. I want a toy rocket… let’s ask Santa Claus.”  Kirobo, accompanying Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, is part of a Japanese experiment to increase man to machine communication. Without any pre-programmed responses,  Kirobo processes the questions and then chooses words from its vocabulary to form proper answers.

The creators of Kirobo, a combination of engineers from the University of Tokyo, Robo Garage, Toyota, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), want to know if a robot with conversational skills can be a viable option for human companionship. They also want to learn how well humans and robots can interact, and hope that more robots like Kirobo can play more active roles in keeping astronauts company on their missions.

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