The black-bodied robot fish is about four feet long, and resembles a real fish in both shape and movement. The robot is controlled remotely with a palm-sized control pad. It also has automatic navigation controls and swims at about four kilometers per hour for up to three hours.
The robofish from China is described as being "flexible in action, easy to operate and makes little disturbance to surrounding environment." It has been tested in an underwater search of a sunken warship last August.
This sophisticated robot might be the direct ancestor
of the Mitsubishi turbot, the
robofish that is the star of Michael Swanwick's 2002 novelette Slow Life.
In the story, astronauts gamely explore Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, while
doing good public relations by answering constant questions posed for them over
the Web. The robofish is used to swim not just in water, but in icy lakes of
methane and ammonia:
If you like robofish, you might want a look at
robotic lamprey parasites.
Learn more about the real Titan (as opposed to the
literary version). Read more about the underwater robotic fish.
(This Science Fiction in the News story used
with permission from Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction.) Consuelo carefully cleaned both of her
suit's gloves in the sea, then seized the shrink-wrap's zip tab and yanked.
The plastic parted. Awkwardly, she straddled the fish, lifted it by the two
side-handles, and walked it into the dark slush.
She set the fish down.
"Now I'm turning it on."
The Mitsubishi turbot wriggled, as if alive. With
one fluid motion, it surged forward, plunged, and was gone.
Lizzie
switched over to the fishcam.
Black liquid flashed past the turbot's
infrared eyes. Straight away from the shore it swam, seeing nothing but flecks
of paraffin, ice, and other suspended particulates as they loomed up before it
and were swept away in the violence of its wake. A hundred meters out, it
bounced a pulse of radar off the sea floor, then dove, seeking the depths...
(read more)