Aquabot Trifecta Complete: Robot Fish
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 10 of September , 2007 at 4:18 am
By Evan Ackerman
I have to admit that these robotic fish are just about as convincingly alive and intelligent as any goldfish I’ve ever met. Designed by Professor Huosheng Hu at the University of Essex, these glittery robofish are able to navigate autonomously around their tank, avoiding obstacles and each other. According to Hu, “this work has many real-world applications including seabed exploration, detecting leaks in oil pipelines, mine countermeasures, and improving the performance of underwater vehicles.” That’s all well and good, but I think the director of the London Aquarium (where the fish are on display) pretty much sums it up: “our robotic fish are really wonderful to look at and very entertaining. It’s amazing how beautiful and graceful their movements are – they’re going to be incredibly popular with our visitors.” They definitely were popular when they were first announced back in July of 2005; so how come my local pet store still only sells real fish?
[ London Aquarium ] VIA [ Neatorama ]
Category: Research
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