The ability for us to measure pollution levels in the water isn’t exactly new and we as humans have come up with various ways and tools to do so. However it seems that in the future, things could get a lot more efficient, thanks to the work done by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute where they’ve created a robotic “eel” that can swim in water and detect pollution.
What makes this particular robot so unique is the fact that it is completely modular. What this means is that the body of the robot is comprised of various sensors that can measure all sorts of things. This also means that depending on the location and the data that scientists want to collect, they can pick and choose which sensors they want to use, making the robotic eel a highly adaptable device.
For example some of the sensors can be used to measure things like water conductivity and temperature, while other sensors might be chemical based, and some are biological based like fish cells grown on electrodes that refuse to touch each other should it come into contact with toxins (thus detecting possible toxic pollution).
The data collected by this little robot will then be sent back to a computer in real-time, and it can be programmed to follow a specific path, or it can be used to track down pollution on its own. So far testing of the physical and chemical sensors have been successful, with plans to start testing the biological sensors outside of the lab this summer.
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