Robotic fish gauge water health

November 2, 9:37 AMScience News ExaminerMeg Marquardt

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The first prototypes are based on yellow perch.

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Imagine a school of fish, slim, sleek, moving through the water with natural ease. Except these fish are anything but natural. Robotic fish, created to probe underwater environments, are the newest project from Michigan State University. Capable of staying in the field for months, the fishy robots would offer an unprecedented level of monitoring water environments.

Marine ecosystems are among the most delicate and quick to change on the planet. The creation of a moving, maneuverable survey system will allow scientists to watch for temperature changes, oxygen levels, or aquatic threats like toxic algae.

"The robotic fish will be providing a consistent level of data that hasn't been possible before," Elena Litchman, an assistant professor of zoology at Michigan State, explained. "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." [EurekAlert]

Litchman is collaborating with Xiaobo Tan, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at MSU, to create the robots. Their goal is to make them as close to life as possible, probes designed to face the unique challenges a watery environment presents. The probes will swim with the support of fins and bodies that are built “with electro-active polymers that use electricity to change shape. Similar to real muscle tissue, ion movements twist and bend the polymer when voltage is applied.” [EurekAlert] They will also have infrared sensors for eyes and a maneuvering circuits system that will act as a mimicked central nervous system.

The robotic fish will be programmed to surface regularly in order to communicate with wireless dock stations. They can relay their gathered data and receive new orders for the next mission. Litchman and Tan hope to use the fish individually or as schools, depending on the demands of the maneuver which will be precisely guided by GPS.

At the moment, all that exists is a prototype: a 9-inch robotic yellow perch which lives in a tank in Tan's lab. It cannot yet face the stiff currents of a real body of water, but it is up and swimming, the first step towards a fishy monitoring system.

"This project will greatly advance bio-robotic technology," Tan said. "The project is very practical and we are designing the fish to be inexpensive so they can be used in various applications like sampling lakes, monitoring aquafarms and safeguarding water reservoirs." [EurekAlert]

The project is funded by the National Science Foundation.