A robot fish to guide other fish away from danger
When we are talking about dangers that may threaten the fish at sea, we do not mean those caused by other inhabitants of the water: Mother Nature is doing its job well enough without man having to stick his nose in it. We are rather talking about dangers created by human intervention, and just to name an example that has the world watching lately, the Gulf oil spill is before everyone’s eyes.
And when it comes to man-made threats, the natural defenses acquired over millions of years may not be enough for the fish to swim towards a safe haven. With this in mind, an Italian researcher from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University has created a robot fish designed to act as a leader for other fish and, by having them follow him, guide them to safety, for example away from the oil spill.
To achieve this task, the research team has observed a group of fishes’ behavior, coming to the conclusion that, in order to gain attention from others, the aspiring leader fish shakes his tailfin faster and more vigorously.
Once he gains their attention, he gathers them in a pack and leads them, and often these groups of fish are formed by different species.
Therefore, they have designed a black robotic fish, approximately 15 cm in length, with the aim of “taking over” the power among his live peers, recreating realistic motions by using polymeric materials which move as a reaction to a small electric impulse generated by an internal battery.
In the future, these robotic leader fish will be equipped with a battery that recharges itself automatically with motion, thus becoming almost eternal. They might be used to guide other fish away from potentially dangerous situations, for example to prevent them from swimming too close to the turbines of an hydroelectric power plant.
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