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A team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) created a soft robotic fish that can independently swim beside real fish in the ocean.
The Soft Robotic Fish, aka SoFi, is a hypnotic machine, the likes of which the sea has never seen before. Using its undulating tail and a unique ability to control its own buoyancy, SoFi can swim in a straight line, turn, or dive up or down.
The team also used a waterproofed Super Nintendo controller and developed a custom acoustic communications system that enabled them to change SoFi's speed and have it make specific moves and turns.
"To our knowledge, this is the first robotic fish that can swim untethered in three dimensions for extended periods of time," said CSAIL PhD candidate Robert Katzschmann, lead author of the new journal article published today in Science Robotics. "We are excited about the possibility of being able to use a system like this to get closer to marine life than humans can get on their own."
THE PURPOSE BEHIND DESIGNING IT
Scientists designed SoFi to solve several problems that torment oceanic robotics.
Problem one: Communication
Underwater vehicles are typically tethered to a boat because radio waves don't do well in water. What SoFi's inventors have opted for instead is sound.
Problem two: Classical robot electric motors, known as actuators
They can be clunky and the movement they produce can be stuttery. However, SoFi belongs to a burgeoning class of "soft robots," which are generally soft and use air or oil to locomote.
Problem three: Swimming is expensive
In particular, fish need to hang tight at certain depths, but constantly correcting by swimming up or down is inefficient. So fish evolved a gas-filled organ called swim bladder, which allows them to achieve neutral buoyancy.