If you have been around Asia enough, you would realize that the Chinese and Japanese especially, those who have plenty of disposable income, love keeping koi – or carp, in a man-made pond in their homes. The prices of these carp do come in a very wide range, from extremely affordable to very expensive, depending on the breed. Well, how about having robot fish swim around instead? Surely they do not require you to purchase medicine and ensure that the pH level of the water is just right, but there is still the issue of maintenance, as anything with moving parts do wear out and break down eventually.
A bunch of researchers from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering has come up with a robot fish which will mimic the movements of a carp, although from what you can see above, it looks more like a disjointed rocket than anything else. I suppose that is because this is far from the finished article if it were to be enlisted by the military for some sort of espionage missions, but it is a good start for this autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).
Filed in ..