An ecologist and an engineer at Michigan State University are working together to create robot fish that can better monitor various factors in aquatic environments.
Xiaobo Tan, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering says they are developing the fish so they will be able to navigate and communicate with each other. “Fish are very efficient. They can perform very efficient locomotion and maneuvering in the water,” Tan points out.
The fish will monitor environmental aspects such sampling lakes, monitoring aquafarms and safeguarding water reservoirs–recording temperature, dissolved oxygen, pollutants and harmful algae. Tan says the fish won’t be very expensive despite all these things.
Elena Litchman, an assistant professor of zoology based at MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station on Gull Lake in Kalamazoo County, says, “With these patrolling fish we will be able to obtain information at an unprecedentedly high spatial and temporal resolution. Such data are essential for researchers to have a more complete picture of what is happening under the surface as climate change and other outside forces disrupt the freshwater ecosystems. It will bring environmental monitoring to a whole new level.”
Tan and Litchman recently won funding for this project from the National Science Foundation.
Here’s an example of a robotic fish currently in development. This one is developed by scientists from Essex University is put through its paces in a special tank at the London Aquarium. It works via sensors and has autonomous navigational control. The carp-shaped robots, costing 20,000 pounds ($29,000) apiece, mimic the movement of real fish and are equipped with chemical sensors to sniff out potentially hazardous pollutants, such as leaks from vessels or underwater pipelines.
