ROBOT OF THE WEEK: SOMETHING FISHY
by Hazed
MIT researchers have built a robot fish. The fishy droid will allow scientists to spy on their fleshy fishy brethren and see things humans normally don’t see, because the fish normally hide when they see divers with bulky underwater cameras.
The underwater fish mimics the appearance and swimming behaviour of a fish. It’s 47cm long and weighs 1.6kg, and it’s been given the name SoFi, short for Soft Robotic Fish. The source link below has a diagram showing how it’s been put together.
It will be controlled by a diver who will be able to stay in the background, far enough away not to alarm the real fish.
The researchers spent three days off the coast of Fiji testing SoFi (it’s a hard job, but somebody’s got to do it). The robot fish spent 240 minutes exploring a coral reef.
This is the first time a robot fish has swum in the sea, untethered, for a prolonged period. Its success could herald a swarm of fishy droids teeming through the oceans.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/22/finding_robo/
