Robot Fish

MIT DAVELOPS ROBOT THAT CAN SWIM LIKE A REAL FISH:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists have developed an autonomous robotic fish that can execute escape manoeuvers, convulsing its body to change direction in just a fraction of second, or almost as quickly as a real fish can. The self-contained robot developed by MIT is capable of rapid body motion. The continuous curvature of fish’s body when it flexes is what allows it to change direction so quickly. The robotic fish was built by Andrew Marchese, a graduate student in MIT’s department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and lead author on the newspaper, where he was joined by Rus and Cagdas D Onal. Each side of the fish’s tail is bored through with a long, tightly undulating channel. Researchers explained, Carbon Dioxide released from a canister in the fish’s abdomen causes the channel to inflate, bending the tail in opposite direction.

Each half of the fish’s tail has just two control parameters: the diameter of the nozzle that releases gas into the channel and the amount of time its left open. In experiments, Marchese found that the angle at which the fish changes the direction – which can be as extreme as 100 degrees – is almost entirely determined by the nozzle diameter. Marchese used a 3-D printer to build the mould in which he cast the fish’s guts. The fish can perform 20 or 30 escape manoeuvres, depending on their velocity and angle, before it exhausts its Carbon Dioxide canister.