Mechanical Amazonian fish could pave way for highly agile
underwater robots
The weakly electric black ghost knifefish of the Amazon
basin has inspired Northwestern University’s Malcolm MacIver and an
interdisciplinary team of researchers to develop agile fish robots that could
lead to a vast improvement in underwater vehicles used to study fragile coral
reefs, repair damaged deep-sea oil rigs or investigate sunken ships.
MacIver discussed the research at a press briefing, “Robots
from Nature: Making Mechanical Animals,” held Feb. 15 as part of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Chicago. He
also spoke about “Electric Fish Robotics” as part of the Feb. 16 symposium
“Intelligent Autonomous Robots: Biologically Inspired Engineering.”