Robot Fish To Hunt Down Pollution 55
An anonymous reader writes "According to the Financial Times, scientists are building a shoal of robot fish to be let loose in the port [of Gijon, Spain] to check on the quality of the water. The fish are equipped with tiny chemical sensors capable of detecting pollutants in the water. These let them home in on the sources of hazardous pollutants, such as leaks from vessels or undersea pipelines. Modeled on carp and costing about £20,000 ($29,000) each to make, the fish are to be lifelike in appearance and swimming behavior so they will not alarm their fellow marine inhabitants."
Have we already forgotten shoe-turtle? (Score:2, Interesting)
> the fish are to be lifelike in appearance and
> swimming behavior
Take a clue from nature and make the thing neon orange and yellow, with bright green spikes. Flashing LEDs would also be nice.
When you have a $29,000 piece of equipment you don't want it to be abused by the locals.
Re:Metallic Chum (Score:3, Interesting)
the fish are to be lifelike in appearance and swimming behavior so they will not alarm their fellow marine inhabitants.
Whats more, what evidence do they have that swimming robots that do not look anything lifelike are alarming to any marine animals? Have they seen any really surprised fish swimming around? This seems like a completely unnecessary and really dumb feature (read bug) for such such a robot. It should be built to have maximum battery life, allowing for any swimming style that extends its range. I for one have never seen a fish in a state of "alarm" unless it was being hauled in on a fishing line. Even in this case, occasionally it was catch and release, so the sole reason for the activity was to cause the fish to go into a state of "alarm".