Researcher Gert Toming tests the Homer fish-robot near a small dam.
Jeffrey Tuhtan
Robots Inspired By Water Creatures: Photos
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The fast and maneuverable Naro-Tartaruga will have pressure, temperature, water leakage and water flow sensors, along with gyros, GPS and a compass to navigate.
ETH Zurich
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Soft arms and artificial muscles give this octobot a firm grip.
Massimo Brega
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A robot based on a salamander has a neural network modeled on a real one.
Kostas Karakasiliotis, Biorobotics Laboratory, EPFL
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The 3.3-foot-long robotic sea turtle called Naro-Tartaruga weighs 165 pounds and swims fairly quickly.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
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Jellyfish use little energy to move so an autonomous, robotic one could monitor and explore oceans continuously.
Virginia Tech
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A tree frogs’ gripping feet became the inspiration for a robotic camera that could safely move around slippery internal tissues during abdominal surgery.
University of Leeds
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A carp-like robot was designed to detect pipeline leaks and help lay communication cable.
National University of Singapore
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A shark-like robot that moves silently and stealthily through the water will be deployed this summer to follow and study actual sharks off the California coast.
Gwen Goodmanlowe
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Silicone wings that expand and contract help this robotic manta ray move through water like the real thing.
West Chester University
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This swimming robot is designed to clean toxic metals from waterways.
Fortune Institute of Technology
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That’s because fish often lose track of the downstream current that provides them with the right clues, including bits of food, smells or tiny changes in waterflow through the maze.
Some studies have shown poorly designed ladders block more than 90 percent of migrating fish.
Part of it may be how the water flows through the ladder. Real fish can sense currents and subtle pressure changes in the water that help them navigate through their environment.
The biomimetic fish robot -- Homer -- uses a lateral line sensor that provides data on water flow, underwater obstacles and tight spaces.
“We are trying to get away from the hard core engineering perspective, and instead of look at it from a fish’s perspective,” said Jeffrey Tuhtan, a hydraulic engineer from California who works at the German firm SJE Ecohydraulic Engineering, which designs riverways and fish ladders (also known as fish passes) in Europe and the U.S.
“The only way to do it is to create a fish-shaped sensor,” Tuhtan said. “We record that information and bring data back to the lab and see how hydrodynamic properties of the fish pass will help the individual make it through.”
If the robot receives conflicting data via the sensor while attempting to pass through a fish ladder, real fish will also have trouble making their way past dams.
Researchers from Estonia, Finland and Germany are testing Homer in streams flowing into the Baltic Sea.