The bioinspiration lab develops instruments and techniques to explore mysteries of the deep sea for bioinspired design. With a focus on imaging, our technologies reveal novel views of marine organisms not otherwise possible, which we use to study the amazing adaptations animals have developed for life in a deep, cold, and dark environment.

We bring the laboratory into the ocean by developing minimally invasive techniques to understand physical-biological interaction using fine-scale measurements of organismal behavior in their natural environment. This instrumentation includes DeepPIV, a laser-based 2D imaging system that can be used to look through transparent tissues, and EyeRIS, a plenoptic camera system capable of imaging particle fields and tissue surface movement in 3D. In addition to these systems developed for deployment up to 4000 meter deep using remotely operated vehicles, we’re developing similar instrumentation for autonomous underwater vehicles to increase the spatial and temporal scale of our observations. Furthering the usefulness of these integrations, we’ve worked on enabling and integrating machine learning approaches to processing visual data through projects such as FathomNet and ML-tracking.

We also bring the ocean into the laboratory by using both novel and commonly used diagnostic engineering techniques to study biological and physical processes in more detail in a controlled environment, including shore-based and shipboard labs. This includes setups that use lasers or other advanced light sources to study morphology, locomotion, and fluid interactions in detail using highspeed cameras.

The lessons we learn during in-situ and laboratory studies can be used to improve ocean technology that advances exploration and discovery of our vastly underexplored ocean.