Saturday, March 21, 2009

Robo-fish to sniff out pollution

Check out the amazing robo-fish in the video below. They look and swim like real fish.

As part of the European SHOAL project (clever name, yes?), the robo-fish that sniff out pollution will be released off Spain. The reason for using robo fish is that fish swimming is very efficient so batteries can last longer. The robo fish will swim around and look for problems, and then report back to the mother ship.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want one!

Experiments with robotic sharks to observe shark behavior close up haven't been terribly successful. I hope this turns out better.

Anonymous said...

This is really not needed. Can't you tell that most water here on earth is polluted even without this fish? Seriously, they wasted money on this one. They should have just invented something that would eliminate pollution and not just detect it.

Anonymous said...

that is well and truly wicked! I wonder though, is that too lifelike? What will the top predators make of it? These robofish might be in for a short ride.

Anonymous said...

That thing would be a sweet pet. But how in the world can they make a ROBOT fish? WEIRD!

~Alexa from Oceans 4Ever

Latitude 43 said...

Kind of cool. Useless, but cool.

I'd rather see a solar powered micro sub. Surface, recharge, dive dive dive. Though, if I hit one while sailing, I'd be pretty pissed. There was an article on robot sailing ships not too long ago. http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/11/microtransat-robot-sailing-takes-to-the-high-seas-this-fall/

Christie Lynn said...

What happens when robo-fish gets eaten by non-robo other fish? Wouldn't it be better to NOT look like an item on another species' menu?

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much of that $30k each price tag goes into making sure that the pollution detecting fish don't themselves become pollution, either by breaking down, getting lost, getting eaten, or in the manufacturing process.