A robot fish released by MIT on Wednesday can swim without spooking real fish for the first time, allowing scientists to observe and evaluate marine conditions in new ways.
The Soft Robotic Fish, called SoFi for short, uses new technologies to move more realistically and can communicate through acoustic signals rather than radio frequency communication, allowing it to move freely without being tethered to a boat, MIT reported.
Currently, the fish is piloted by divers that can be up to 70 feet away from it, but scientists plan to use machine vision for future versions, which could lock onto individual fish and follow them around.
“It could help us with the problems of fish avoidance and fish attraction that are associated with other forms of monitoring with robots and divers,” Northeastern’s Hanumant Singh, who was not involved in the research but develops underwater autonomous vehicles, said, according to Wired.
The robot fish’s swimming technique is similar enough to a real fish not to spook them, and uses circulating water to achieve the natural, undulating motion, The Next Web reported. A buoyancy method involving oil-filled chambers inside the fish allows it to be propelled up and down as well.
Tests as long as 50 minutes at depths of over 50 feet were conducted and filmed to show what the fish can do, CNet reported. A camera lens that looks like a fish eye and can record videos of underwater enviroments.
“To our knowledge, this is the first robotic fish that can swim untethered in three dimensions for extended periods of time,” CSAIL Ph.D. candidate and lead author of a paper about the fish published in Science Robotics, Robert Katzschmann, said, MIT reported.
"We view SoFi as a first step toward developing almost an underwater observatory of sorts," CSAIL director and co-author Daniela Rus added. "It has the potential to be a new type of tool for ocean exploration and to open up new avenues for uncovering the mysteries of marine life."
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