Fish-inspired robots are nothing new, but the way this particular one gets about is definitely original.
A flying fish robot, developed by a team at Imperial College London, uses farts to propel itself out of the water so it can get a good look around.
Mirko Kovac, director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at Imperial College London, said a flying fish robot could be the ideal tool to monitor reefs or ice floes where simple swimming might not be enough.
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He told Digital Trends: "This robot is all about a high-powered propulsion system that allows it to transition from water to air.
“To make this transition effective, we need a very high-powered system that allows it to clear the water and enter gliding flight.
"As a locomotion principle, this aquatic jump-gliding is also used by flying fish. That’s partially where the inspiration comes from.”
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A paper from the team, published in the journal Science Robotics, said that the “160-gram robot could achieve a flight distance of 26 metres using 0.2 gram of [fuel].”
The robot mixes calcium carbide pellets with the water it’s swimming in to produce combustible acetylene gas, which turns the “fish” into a miniature jet for short periods.
Kovac says that the autonomous fish robot could be useful as a monitoring tool.
He said: “[You can imagine this being used] for reef monitoring or arctic sea monitoring, for example.
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“Often there are obstacles in the water, such as rocks, coral, or floating ice, that make it difficult to gain access using a traditional aquatic vehicle.
“The method we presented here would allow a variety of aquatic vehicles to temporarily transition out [swimming] to enter the aerial space. It would let them operate in more complex environments.”
With Boston Dynamics creating robotic dogs and gymnastic robot humanoids , there aren’t many types of creature left that aren’t in danger of being put out of work by our metal cousins.
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