New Robotic Fish for Environmental Monitoring

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New Robotic Fish for Environmental Monitoring

Researchers from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and University of Florence are developing a bio-inspired robot equipped with special chemical sensors able to detect the pH of water.

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Prototype of the robotic fish. Credit: C. Rossi, UPM

These robots, that mimic a swimming fish in order to minimize the fish disturbance and stress, can detect in-situ real-time anomalies and this is suitable to control environmental conditions in fish farms.

Researchers from Bio-inspired Systems Lab at CAR UPM-CSIC, a joint centre between Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Spanish National Research Council, in collaboration with researchers from the Chemical Department of University of Florence (Italy) are developing an autonomous underwater vehicle with biosensor to provide real-time and on-site monitoring of water quality in fish farms.

In order to minimize the inconveniences and possible stress in fish, the developed robot is bio-mimetic, that is, that mimics both its appearance and its functioning. In addition to providing water data, the robotic fish is also able to modify the way they swim according to the water conditions with the purpose of, for example, to detect and highlight the areas of concentration.

Because water acidity directly affect other indicators both water quality and fish health, researchers have developed a special electrochemical pH sensor based on polyaniline film electrochemically deposited on the graphite screen-printed electrode surface. Thanks to this, the robotic fish is able to change its swimming patterns according to the information sent by this sensor.

The overall length of the fish is 30 cm without including the tail. The prototype adopts shape memory alloys actuators that bend a continuous flexible structure (the backbone of the robot fish), made of polycarbonate of 1 mm thickness. An additional structure of ribs was employed to support the latex-based skin.

According to Claudio Rossi, a developer of this bio-inspired fish, "thanks to this system that provides early information on environmental change, we can control the parameters of water quality and improve management decisions of fish farms, and consequently, the wellness of these animals."

Read more: Science Daily

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