Man, the engineers at the University of Kitakyushu are really something, coming up with an underwater survey robot that looks good enough to appear on the dining table cooked and ready to eat. Dubbed “Tai-robot-kun,” this 7kg robotic sea bream (also known as a red snapper to Animal Crossing fans) comes with a silicone body covered in hand-painted scales that would fool most of the people who look at it, boasting a special propulsion system that enables it to swim through the murky depths just like a real fish. The Tai-robot-kun is able to swim for up to an hour on a single full charge, using the integrated ballast system to adjust its buoyancy and depth. The whole point to this robot is to perform oceanographic survey tasks, hopefully some trawlers don’t accidentally drag this up with the rest of their real catch. I’d hate to bite into screws and wires for dinner.
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