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Robotic Fish Track Targets, Communicate With One Another
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:08 PM
from the there's-a-fish-net-joke-here-somewhere dept.
from the there's-a-fish-net-joke-here-somewhere dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Many of today's underwater robots need to periodically come up to the surface to communicate with their human supervisors. But researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have developed a new kind of underwater vehicle. The 'Robofish' can work cooperatively with each other. 'The Robofish, which are roughly the size of a 10-pound salmon, look a bit like fish because they use fins rather than propellers.' According to the researchers, such robots 'could cooperatively track moving targets underwater, such as groups of whales or spreading plumes of pollution, or explore caves, underneath ice-covered waters, or in dangerous environments where surfacing might not be possible.' Further information and more pictures are also available for these autonomous fin-actuated underwater vehicles."
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Anyone else miss the cold war? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anyone else miss the cold war? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh and they still have the ability to kill every single man woman and child on this planet in less than 12 hours.
Parent
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Of course, I'm talking about Russia, not the US, though I'll admit the differences are small.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
There's a big chance that new cold war will start but it'll be much different that the previous one. It can be 3 sided with China taking also strong-arming especially in Asia and Africa. Oh, in Brazil also. Also technical advancements changed many aspects of warfare, you can see it when you look at cyberattacks originating from China.
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They will probably send them to swim through the sewers and listen to people's conversations from just around the u-bend. Those Government Bastards!
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But.. do they fart? (Score:3, Funny)
An Ig Noble award was for Fish Flatulence as a means of communication [bioedonline.org].
So we just need to create a robotic Bender, that burps and has an exploding ass, to really understand nature.
Skin depth -- why submarines use VLF radio (Score:5, Informative)
--
Hey code monkey... learn electronics! [nerdkits.com]
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Prey (Score:4, Interesting)
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I can't believe the forward thinking about oceanic pollution when it comes to putting devices like this in the water is not present when it comes to their prototype development. It's like we're right back in the excessive product commercialism of the 50's and 60's all over again...despite the education and technology behind ecological systems these days.
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Other than that, all those old boats sitting on the bottom have not been eaten bit by bit, so you can relax and quit worrying about the fish being killed by poisonous parts from the robo-fish.
Grouper and sharks and larger predatory fi
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I am not a tree hugger, but my point here is that this kind of development needs to be approached from a much more ecologically sound perspective, given that the level of education and technology is advan
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Why are you "sure" of that?
Most of the materials are obvious (metal, plastic, printed circuit board, battery) so unless there is Something Very Bad cunningly hidden is it's robo-guts, it's no worse than chucking a PC over the side. One shipwreck would put more material on the sea bed than the entire likely robo-fish production.
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need a better apronym (Score:5, Funny)
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You can bet your bottom dollar... (Score:3, Funny)
The first time a fisherman accidentally catches one of these things, I have no doubt he'll swear it weighed at least 30 pounds, was half the length of his boat and towed him around the bay for half an hour.
When he realized what he had, of course, he released it.
Surf Patrol (Score:4, Interesting)
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Why? (Score:2)
If we were to develop synthetic muscles, then and only then does linear propulsion make sense. I suppose hydraulics are somewhat similar, but they are not nearly as robust as something based on fibers could be.
Forget SkyNet (Score:3, Funny)
Roland's blogspam (Score:3, Interesting)
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