Can a $31,000 fish help curb water pollution? Last week the
SHOAL Consortium began testing robotic fish off the coast of
Spain. The 5-foot-long fish-shaped devices have chemical sensors
and can sample and analyze water samples for a number of
parameters themselves in real time, rather than transporting
those samples to an onshore lab. They transmit the data to a
shore-based station. Equipped with artificial intelligence, the
fish can navigate their surroundings and find their way back to
shore when their batteries need to be recharged. If one fish
detects significant or unusual pollutants, it can communicate
with the others so that all can search together for the source,
potentially spotting leaks or spills much faster than by
conventional means. In addition to detecting pollutants, the
robotic fish might also be used for applications like underwater
security and search-and-rescue efforts, their inventors say.
Their development, which was funded in part by the European
Union, made use of research from various