UK team builds robot fish to detect pollution

[GLT]

UK team builds robot fish to detect pollution
Fri Mar 20, 2009 6:11am EDT


LONDON (Reuters) - Robot fish developed by British scientists are to
be released into the sea off north Spain to detect pollution.

If next year's trial of the first five robotic fish in the northern
Spanish port of Gijon is successful, the team hopes they will be used
in rivers, lakes and seas across the world.

The carp-shaped robots, costing 20,000 pounds ($29,000) apiece, mimic
the movement of real fish and are equipped with chemical sensors to
sniff out potentially hazardous pollutants, such as leaks from vessels
or underwater pipelines.

They will transmit the information back to shore using Wi-Fi
technology.

Unlike earlier robotic fish, which needed remote controls, they will
be able to navigate independently without any human interaction.

Rory Doyle, senior research scientist at engineering company BMT
Group, which developed the robot fish with researchers at Essex
University, said there were good reasons for making a fish-shaped
robot, rather than a conventional mini-submarine.

"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," he said.

"This efficiency is something we need to ensure that our pollution
detection sensors can navigate in the underwater environment for hours
on end."

The robot fish will be 1.5 meters (nearly 5 feet) long -- roughly the
size of a seal.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler, editing by Tim Pearce)

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