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

[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)