The deep ocean is the least explored environment on Earth, and scientists estimate that many thousands of species are yet to be encountered. Marine researchers depend on tools primarily developed for the military or the oil and gas industry to study and capture undersea organisms. Many of them are extremely fragile, some thousands of years old, and too often they are damaged or destroyed by equipment that is hard, bulky, and hard to control.
 
In this episode of Disruptive, Rob Wood, a roboticist and Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute, and David Gruber, a marine biologist at Baruch College, discuss a chance encounter that led them to develop soft robotic tools that enable a new, non-invasive approach to interacting with deep ocean life.

Disruptive: Soft Robotics for Deep Sea Exploration

The Wyss Institute uses Nature's design principles to develop bioinspired technologies that will revolutionize medicine and create a more sustainable world.