MIT Researchers Build a Soft Robotic Fish
Posted on March 15, 2014
MIT researchers have developed a soft robotic fish. The fish robot can execute an escape maneuver as quickly as a real fish. It can change direction in about 100 milliseconds.
The autonomous robot is made out of soft silicone which helps them bend and twist. Each side of the robotic fish's tail is bored through with a long, tightly undulating channel. The fish can change direction when it receives a wireless signal. When it receives a signal to change direction the soft robotic fish releases carbon dioxide from a canister in its abdomen. This causes the channel to inflate, which bends the tail in the opposite direction. The angle and speed at which the fish changes direction is controlled by diameter of the nozzle that releases gas into the channel and the amount of time it's left open.
Andrew Marchese, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is the lead author of the paper published in the launch issue of Soft Robotics. Daniela Rus, director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, is one of the researchers who designed and built the fish. She says the soft robots are safer to be around.
Professor Rus says, "We're excited about soft robots for a variety of reasons. As robots penetrate the physical world and start interacting with people more and more, it's much easier to make robots safe if their bodies are so wonderfully soft that there's no danger if they whack you."
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