Autonomous RoboFish at the London Aquarium

mikael writes "The London Aquarium currently has an exhibit based on autonomous robotic fish. Each fish is 50 cm long, 15 cm high, and 12cm wide with a maximum swim speed of 50cm/second with battery life lasting up to 5 hours at half speed. The BBC has more details (with video). Many more videos are available at the Robotics Video Gallery." From the article: "We have embedded sensors on board - so, unlike the previous fishes that have remote controls, these are fully autonomous and artificial-intelligence based ... This one is more life-like - it mimics normal swimming and sharp turning ... People get confused and think it's a real fish."

Comments

Re:These sound like an excellent pet!

[Jace of Fuse!]

I believe just charging the water would not create a current within the fish unless the fish had a ground that didn't also ground the water. Path of lease resistance and all that.

An easier solution would be induction charged fish.

Re:Tunaring Test

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect they'll get tasted by the big guys.

"Pet" or home tank fish have personalities (so to speak).

Feeder fish - guppies, mollies, swordtails, neons, you know, kiddie fish that the bigger fish eat - seem primarily to respond to the threat of a larger predator, and some of them do not react much. I've seen goldfish swim within a few inches of the front end of an Oscar.

Ciclids (mid and large sized fish from Africa and the Americas) are fairly aware of their surroundings and appear to see out to varying extents. They have at least half a clue. They are also predators. They go from a couple to a few inches in length and have teeth.

Oscars (big Ciclids growing to ten inches in length or so in a modest tank, fifteen inches in a large tank or in the wild) and the other big guys know you're there, know you are the guy with the food, and will dance about when they see you reach for the food tin. They can suck a goldfish in from several inches by just violently expanding their gills. Oscars will nip at your arm as you clean the tank - surprise, but no damage - the teeth are rounded on the end. Still completely ruins the day for the goldfish.

So in general it depends: non-predators are rather unaware, predators know what's going on. Big predators look out and recognize people.

Re:Tunaring Test

[mikael]

A similar experiment was conducted at the Plymouth aquarium. They placed a robotic shark alongside
real sharks.


  Two scientific papers are being proposed on the subject.
Roboshark inventor Andrew Sneath said the sand tiger sharks at the aquarium had accepted their new companion.
"They seem to quite enjoy it and seem intrigued by its presence.
"They are accepting what he's doing and just letting him keep on swimming around," he said.
Andrew will be making the most of the unique education opportunities offered by Roboshark's blend of robot with nature.

He will be developing similar robot exhibits for other aquariums and science centres.

Re:Efficiency of movement?

[mikael]

There have been many studies, but like geese, fish also take advantage of swimming in groups:

Scientists show how fish save energy by swimming in schools

And there have been many studies into dolphin and whale motion.

Hydrodynamic study into whale flippers

The use of rotary motors only seems to occur at the bacterial level (flagella bacteria)