Dolphins + Robot Seaplane = Fun
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 21 of January , 2008 at 3:28 am
It’s always kinda fun to see how animals interact with robots; since robots aren’t something that are generally designed to work with animals (with some exceptions) or vice versa. Now, everybody knows that dolphins are the second most intelligent form of life on earth, so it’s especially interesting to see them checking out this little robotic seaplane:
To the researchers, it appeared that the dolphins thought the UAV was a pelican diving for fish, said Ella Atkins, a researcher from U-M’s Aerospace Engineering Department. Finding the craft wasn’t a bird that had spotted tasty fish swimming below, the pod of three dolphins began playing with it, repeatedly swimming in formation with the little seaplane and diving underneath on one side to surface again on the other.
The autonomous seaplane is called Flying Fish and was built by the University of Michigan on (guess what) a DARPA grant. It’s about 20 pounds with a 2 meter wingspan, and can take off, circle, and land autonomously in even 6 foot seas. It’s designed to provide long duration surveillance of an area of ocean, and it currently being outfitted with solar panels, which should enable it to keep on station indefinitely.
[ Flying Fish ] VIA [ LiveScience ]
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Comment by Flying Games
Made Sunday, 14 of March , 2010 at 7:11 am
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first
comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep
visiting this blog very often.