Posted on 03/21/2018 7:06:22 PM PDT by BenLurkin
It is the first robotic fish to contend with the currents and pressures of an actual ocean setting for an extended period of time.
In a study published Wednesday in Science Robotics, the authors describe how SoFi can nimbly navigate a coral reef off Fiji in three dimensions, swimming up, down, left, right and forward, all at the behest of a diver armed with what looks like a Nintendo controller.
The authors also report that the robot can handle water depths of about 60 feet, and appears to swim alongside real fish without spooking them.
"For us, this fish is magical," said Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, who led the work. "We imagine someday it might help us uncover more mysteries from the amazing underwater world that we know so little about."
SoFi is a fairly small robot, about a foot and a half long and weighing in at just 3.5 pounds. A hydraulic pump moves water in its soft rubber tail from side to side, allowing it to swim in a fish-like motion. Electronics including a Linux PC, along with a fisheye lens, are stored in the robot's head. It runs off a small battery similar to what you would find in your smartphone, and in its current iteration it can swim for about 40 minutes at a time.
Many of SoFi's parts are 3D-printed, making it relatively easy and inexpensive to reproduce.
The design of SoFi could be easily scaled up or down, Rus said, but if it were bigger it would be harder for a diver to get it into and out of the water, and if it were smaller it would struggle more against currents
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Attach a line and a hook to that thing...
Fake news LA Times, fake news. That is, quite obviously, a SUPER Nintendo controller.
And what if it gets eaten by a grouper?
And then one horrible day...
There’s nothing these days that is free from being spied upon.
Attach limpet mines to them and swim them into enemy ports
Could have some fun with Somali pirates...
Some bigger fish will swallow it then puke it up. How will that contraption handle that?
How will it taste like on a pizza? Anchovy I hope.
Not if they gave the little fishie one of these:
‘SoFi can nimbly navigate a coral reef off Fiji in three dimensions, swimming up, down, left, right and forward, all at the behest of a diver armed with what looks like a Nintendo controller.’
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Doesn’t needing a diver to operate it sort of defeat the porpoise?
...couldn’t resist.
Good thing they’re making robot fish. Because with all the automation we’ll all be fishing all day. There won’t be any real fish left. Also Wal-Mart’s anti human agenda moves on. Not only are they getting rid of stickers. Remember PEOPLE WHO HATE PEOPLE USE THE AUTOMATIC TRLLER CHECKOUT! BOYCOTT THE AUTO TELLERS.
Don’t make it look like anything that anything else would want to eat.
The military has very expensive fake dolphins
Who can shoot track and kill
But I didn’t say that ......
You need to clam up....you’re making me crabby...
The pale color makes stand out and look sickly. It will get eaten.
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