back to article Robo-fish to hunt pollution in Spanish seas

Scientists in the UK plan to release a school of autonomous robotic fish into the sea off northern Spain to help detect for hazardous pollutants in the water. The robots are designed to look like carp and swim like real fish so they won't scare the local meat-based wildlife while patrolling the port of Gijon. Each robo-carp …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Paul

    Good idea?

    It's nice not to scare the fish and all... but aren't they asking for their £20,000 gear to be chomped by a shark (or other underwater predator)?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Excuse my ignorance of european waters

    but do you not have large predatory sharks that could mistake these robofish for food?

    With almost weekly attacks by great whites, tiger sharks, bull sharks, crocs etc, robofish like these wouldn't last long in Australian waters.

  3. Darkwolf

    I for one

    welcome our robotic carp overloards.

    Seriously however, how long before a shark mistakes it for food?

    Will they respond to fishermen? Will there be contests to see who catches the biggest robo-fish?

    Will we one day have robo-whales?

    Hmm robo whales, add viewports and compartments and you have a new travel industry.

  4. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. Allan Dyer
    Coat

    If it looks like a fish, and swims like a fish...

    how long before the researchers discover that their £20,000 toy has been eaten by a shark (laser headgear optional) or other predator?

    Mine's the one with the greasy newspaper of chips in the pocket...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yum Yum

    I wonder how long it will take for them to be gobbled up by a bigger fish

  7. Winston Smith

    Throw me a frickin' bone here

    ...are they ill-tempered?

  8. jake Silver badge

    One hundred thousand quid?

    Just for the swimming hardware? Plus the cost of the "docking stations" (to coin a phrase) and attendant bits & pieces & software? And more in support costs? Plus the cost of the human element? And a holiday in Spain, to boot?

    Hell, I'll do it for half of whatever the total works out to be, using off the shelf parts!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    if the fish is in the net ...

    ... can the fisher men claim 2000 Pound for finding and returning it?

  10. Steve

    sport?

    What bait would the local anglers use do you think?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Cod almighty

    Honestly, you'd think they'd have better things to do, spending scads of money on this sort of project, probably just to become a dab hand at some new embedded processor the prof fancied the look of. Of course, if they can tuna the software and hardware by spending a few squid I suppose it might work.

    It's not my plaice to pout I suppose as most students just flounder around listening to bass tracks or sole music and it's nice to see students with a worthy porpoise but you have to wonder what sort of pollacks they will publish in their paper.

    Anonymous, would you put your name to that array of awful piscine puns (I resisted working in hard of herring, damn, no I didn't!)?

    Paris, nice kipper.

    Oh, how do you stun an octopus?

    Kick it in the tentacles!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Am I the only one now hearing nothing but

    the Stingray theme tune?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ROTM

    Rise of the Mackerel?

  14. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    Pretty cool, but I wonder...

    Given that (I assume) they'll have to plug them in to recharge them, why do the data transfer by WiFi?

  15. Chronos
    Happy

    Sharks

    "Om nom nom nom BLEARGH! Jesus, Bob, forget these things. They're carp!"

    Sharks (of which there are many hanging about Biscay looking for the electrical signature of something slow to munch on) can't spell and that's £20,000 down the drain. Never mind ROTM, more like a line of angry sharks suing for Li-Ion burns and false advertising.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Great whites with tummy ache?

    I wonder if it will give bigger predators a bit of a tummy ache?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Why is it...

    that when I hear the words "hundreds of millions of years' worth of evolution" I imagine them being spoken in the voice of Sam Neill?

  18. Nick Palmer
    Coat

    Robo-carp?

    I see El Reg's pun development department isn't flounder-ing; it's stilled perch-ed at the top of the pile, wrass-ling humour from the most unlikely sources...

    Mine's the one with the trout in its pocket...

  19. lglethal Silver badge
    Happy

    Anyone ever heard of Sharks?

    About the size of a seal, but looks like a fish. Sounds like the perfect meal for a hungry shark to me... Who wants to place bets on how long before the first one gets eaten?

  20. jeffrey
    Heart

    Make it green

    Shame they didn't paint it green with a pearlescent white eye, because then it look like a seal sized terror fish, Perfect for shooting down with a seal sized Stingray and a Troy Tempest puppet

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Titan's Fish ?

    Errr, Troy, ay think ay got sumthin' !

  22. Andy Walton
    Go

    Terror Fish?

    Stand by for action! We are about to launch Stingray. Anything can happen in the next half hour!

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can I be the first to say...

    Stingray!

  24. Ralph B

    Bedtime Stories

    I'm willing to hazard a guess that the developers of this robofish have small children. The similarity to Marcus Pfister's "The Rainbow Fish" is remarkable.

  25. John Latham

    Obvious comment

    Where are the frikkin' lasers?

  26. James Fox
    Thumb Down

    Slight Problem

    Isn't a 1.5m long carp going to look pretty appetising to whatever it is that eats carp in the local area? Seems quite expensive to end up as shark food.

  27. Ian McNee
    Alien

    Stand by for Action!

    Let's hope the plucky Spaniards haven't seen Stingray, otherwise they may spot our fish-borne reptilian invasion fleet for what it is!

    Altogether now...

    STINGRAAYYYYY-STINGRAY!! Dadalada-da-da!!

  28. james
    Black Helicopters

    stingray

    every time i see this 'fish' it reminds me of the evil guys submarine in stingray

  29. Chris
    Thumb Up

    oooh, pretty

    They're lovely, the movement is especially great. I heartily approve of making more of these things for any reason whatsoever.

    Do they count towards trawler quotas then?

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    8 hours...

    and the charge time is...

    so in reality there will only be a lot less fish actually swimming..

    1.5 m fishes.. thats pretty big!

    So they are going to live within a 4mile radius of a port... Do they have propellor avoidance systems??

  31. Gavin McMenemy

    Predation...

    Won't predation be a problem? If it looks like a fish and swims like a fish how many robo-fish are going to be lost to hungry real-fish?

  32. TeeCee Gold badge
    Joke

    That's the PR anyway.

    Actually these contain a small, but powerful explosive charge and can spot a Spanish trawler full of illegally caught British fish at 2km..........

    (Daily Mail articles can be recycled as humour. Who knew?)

  33. Lyndon Hills
    Thumb Up

    Sarah Codder

    Sub-head of the year so far!

  34. Secretgeek
    Joke

    @'What bait would the local anglers use?'

    D-cell batteries I'm guessing.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    I can hear it now

    Lookie here, maw. I done fished me up this here metal fish. it's a bigg'n. Sure hope it tastes as good as it looks.

  36. Allan Hawdon

    robot fish

    I'd be more worried about the Spaniards than the sharks. I suspect they'll all end up

    on restaurant tables. They don't mind thir seafood crunchy.

  37. Mark Spooner

    Escorts Needed

    They will need armed escort and support fish obviously.

  38. John

    revenge!

    for all the fish the spanish take from British waters (allegedly), I hope they can they cut through nets as well.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like