Watch the MIT MER-BOT – half droid, half soft 'fish' – swim by itself Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have constructed a fish-like robot which they say will be more durable and safe for everyday use. Based on "soft" robotics technologies, the unit combines a computational system and power supply with a movement system based on a compressed gas pump and a series of tubes …
Firefox (v27.0.1) - I get "Error #2035" instead of the video. I have Adobe flash player v12.0.0.55. This error seems to be "URL not found", though the video does play if I use MSIE.
Anyone else suffering this with Firefox?
Anyone know a solution (that doesn't involve using a different browser)?
As it stands, that robot is useless for watching other fish - it bubbles every time it moves.
Fish react very badly to air bubbles - dolphins use that reaction to shepherd prey into large balls where they can catch them more easily.
For this to be any use in ichthyology, the power source needs redeveloping. It remains to be seen whether or not similar performance can be created using something else.
Still - an interesting piece of work.
Vic.
Both gas and liquids are fluids. Think you are referring to the use of hydraulics.
Obvious that the use of compressed gas is only suitable for the demonstration phase of this idea and it's to save on the complexity of having a pump/actuator and a larger energy source, valves don't use as much.
They're obviously also going to need to sort buoyancy and attitude control for any 'real use' situation.
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