Blogging from Inside the New Media Revolution

Festo, a German company specialized in industrial automation is grabbing a lot of attention at the Hannover Messe (international industrial trade show) with it’s self developed bionic jellyfish. According to the German IT news publisher heise online it is basically a helium filled balloon that is moving around, propelled by it’s clever bionic drive. A small electric motor connected to eight attached tentacles via a nifty mechanical linkage system sets the entire contraption into a surprisingly organic motion. The entire system weighs less than one kilogram (about two pounds) and it’s flight direction is guided by another engineering trick: Inside the balloon a servo motor guided pendulum distributes a little weight into different areas of the balloon. The pendulums weight manipulates the constructions center of gravity which tilts the jelly into different directions.

heise reports that Festo’s project spokesman Markus Fisher told them that the project’s aim is to engage youth for technology and engineering and to demonstrate their competence in combined pneumatic and electric industrial drive systems.

Apparently they are showing a second project with a miniature versions of the above jelly’s swimming in a fish tank in swarm formation. The mini jelly’s are equipped with sensors and computer intelligence communicate with each other via infra-red signals and measure the depth that they are swimming in, constantly maximizing the space in the tank and the available charging stations. The project is supposed to demonstrate how multiple autonomous systems can work together to solve problems and accomplish tasks i.e. in case of one ore multiple entities failing.

Now one might want to ask what that has to do with Growing Smart. Well, anyone who has ever visited an industrial trade show knows that those events are usually not brimming with clever marketing ideas. Usually it is a mix of kinda ugly machinery mixed with girls in elegant to massively attention grabbing outfits, old school designed brochures materials, some form of VIP catering and the same old lines from the sales rep you’ve met for the last 17 years.

In that regard Festo’s ‘jelly fish’ project is more then just an engineering experiment. First of all it clearly draws attention to their show booth without having to put up the biggest ‘castle’ in town. Secondly it allows for visitors and booth staff to initiate conversations in a very relaxed manner, starting off with a funny footnote that engages the emotional part of a new (client) relationship. Third it is advertising that is very context oriented, presenting the company’s capabilities in the most entertaining and unusual way (purple cow anyone?). Last but not least, yes all men like attractive girls but since almost every booth has some around what about the fact that men love their hi-tech toys?

Bottom line: I am sure that the project attracts more people and generates better results than any similar budgeted marketing campaign. Now, to bring in the catch they’ll have to bring their website to the same standard of invovation and freshness in presentation.

Update: I just found a video of the jelly in action on youtube. Ejnoy.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_citFkSNtk]