Robot fish to sniff out pollution
The first school of autonomous robotic fish designed to detect pollution around the world will soon be released into the ocean, according to BMT Group. The robot carp developed in the UK are equipped with "tiny chemical sensors to find the source of potentially hazardous pollutants in the water, such as leaks from vessels in the port or underwater pipelines."
The fish will be released off northern Spain. They'll report on pollution via wifi when returning to their charge station - operating time is about 8 hours.
"While using shoals of robotic fish for pollution detection in harbours might appear like something straight out of science fiction, there are very practical reasons for choosing this form," said Rory Doyle, senior research scientist at BMT Group.
"In using robotic fish we are building on a design created by hundreds of millions of years' worth of evolution which is incredibly energy efficient. This efficiency is something we need to ensure that our pollution detection sensors can navigate in the underwater environment for hours on end."
Labels: cleaning, fish, maritime, robot, technology
posted by Tim at 3:30 AM
1 Comments:
Interesting idea. Instead of having they return for a charge they should have a charging circuit that allows them to return to the surface and charge using solar energy. They could go out for a few months and then return to the port to upload the data they have been collecting.
I would love to see the face of the fisherman who catches one of these in a net. :)
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home