Automated laboratory for the study of biologically inspired soft settling bodies

Soft living organisms suspended, flying, or swimming in a fluid vary in size over nine orders of magnitude, from tens of nanometres to tens of meters. Understanding the evolution and behavior of these strikingly diverse organisms requires detailed knowledge of the interactions between their flexible bodies and the fluid medium. The emerging availability of advanced methods, such as 3D printing and laser cutting of soft materials, has enabled substantial progress in the field. Currently, however, steps forward are limited by the poor scalability of these methods and the cost of alternatives such as direct numerical simulations. We explore potential strategies and trade-offs for automated experiments based on said techniques. Implications for the evolutionary link between physical traits (e.g., terminal settling velocity) and organism shape are discussed.