RoboticFish
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Fish are lazy, naive, easily led by robots (video)
What does a fish look for in a leader? No doubt a nice fishy smell is important, and maybe a sense of direction too, but the overriding factor happens to be something much simpler, and indeed simple enough for a robot to mimic. Our old friend Maurizio Porfiri and a colleague from New York's Polytechnic Institute have shown that a fish-bot will quickly attract live followers if it has a nice, fluid swimming motion. When the stroke is just right, real fish will pull up alongside and visibly relax their own motion to conserve energy, just like geese flying at the rear of a 'vee' formation. It's hoped that, in the future, robots might be used to guide endangered fish populations away from oil spills and other calamities, in much the same way as battery-powered leaders have guided humanity since the dawn of time (allegedly).
Robot fish get upgraded, keep schooling real-life counterparts
Okay, so they still look like Depression-era bath toys, but Maurizio Porfiri's robot fish have come a long way from the coconut-and-tin-foil look they were sporting last summer. In an attempt to further "close the loop" between robotics and nature, Porfiri has continued to tinker with the little leaders by incorporating diving and surfacing into their aquatic repertoire, and it seems to be working: real fish have shown interaction patterns including tracking, gathering, and following in the presence of the pesci-bots. Now if they could just do the same with the the feral ferret living in our bedroom walls...
Schools of robotic fish to collect data, stomp out human threat
Robotic fish. The phrase alone sends shivers of excitement down our collective spines here at Engadget. Undoubtedly, Michigan State University assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering Xiaobo Tan feels similarly, as he has designs on creating an army of them. The researcher has developed a prototype of a droid fish intended to be used to collect data from various bodies of water. The fish will be especially effective in monitoring conditions over long periods of time; swimming in a manner similar to that of their organic counterparts, thus giving scientists a clearer view of ecosystem changes. Elena Litchman, an assistant professor of zoology at MSU working with Tan says, "With these patrolling fish we will be able to obtain information at an unprecedentedly high spatial and temporal resolution." To recreate realistic movement, Tan has constructed fins built from electro-active polymers, which bend when voltage is applied, mimicking muscle tissue. Tan also envisions a version of the robots with infrared sensors used as "eyes," and other variations with small, deadly lasers mounted on their backs, to protect their waterways from careless, polluting humans, who have been deduced as illogical and must be wiped out. We might have made that last part up, but we'll never tell. While you try and figure it out, enjoy a video of one of the protypes in action after the break. [Via PhysOrg]
Video: MIT robofish set to snoop the deep seas
MIT has been at this robotic fish lark for a long, long time, and its latest iteration is a true testament to all the effort and energy put in. The first prototype, 1994's Robotuna, was four feet long and had 2,843 parts driven by six motors, whereas the new robofish is no longer than a foot, carries one motor and has exactly ten components, including the flexible polymer body. The hardy and relatively inexpensive drones can be used as substitutes for AUVs in tight spaces, inhospitable environments and the like, but their earliest adopters are likely to be supervillains in need of surveillance bots for their moats. Video after the break. [Via CNN]
Robofish communicate with each other, engage in synchronized swimming
Traditional fish should definitely start keeping their guard up, as we've seen a noticeable influx of robotic alternatives flapping around here recently. Joining the school today is the Robofish, a robotic swimming creature developed at the University of Washington. Reportedly, a trio of the units have been built, and during a recent workshop, the bots were able to communicate with one another and successfully swim in either one direction or in different directions. Eventually, researchers hope that these mechanical animals could explore underwater caves, track moving targets or plunge beneath ice sheets, but there's still work to be done before the creature's coordination ability is up to the challenge. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...[Via Slashdot]
