Spanish Port To Get Robo-fish To Detect Pollution

The Spanish port of Gijon is about to get a school of robotic fish who's mandate will be to detect pollutants from ships and outflows of sewers and industries. The robots are designed to swim like fish because the motion uses less energy than propeller drives “The design of fish which nature has produced is a very energy-efficient one,” says Rory Doyle, a researcher working on the project. “The fish's efficiency is created by hundreds of millions of years' of evolution. Submarines come nowhere near it.” The 1.5 metre long robots will be manufactured by the University of Essex and are expected to be deployed within 18 months.

Source: Globe and Mail

Robotic Fish Form Hunting Party

Researchers at the University of Washington are developing fish like robots that have the capability of working autonomously but share information with each other to form a Hunting Party. “There’s no human directly telling them what to do,” explains Kristi Morgansen, UW assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics. She adds that, “They have a program on board and they’re getting various sensor information, either from their on-board sensors or stuff that’s transmitted over a wireless channel.”


RoboFish from James Eagan on Vimeo.

The "Robofish" have fish like fins rather than propellers to make them more maneuverable and less likely to get caught in kelp, rope, or fishing lines. “Fish are much more maneuverable in small spaces than things that we’ve been able to build in engineering with propellers."

I'm fascinated by these little guys! The video is impressive and the swarming, or shall I say "schooling" abilities are rather intriguing.

ScineCentral.com