Robot fish glides out of Michigan State University, tells you if the water is clean

Autonomous fish might make great leaders, but it turns out that robot flippers are a huge drain on battery life. Not a problem for Xiaobo Tan -- he and a group of Michigan State University scientists have built a robotic fish that glides through the water. Tan says the machine, dubbed Grace (Gliding Robot ACE), swims too , but the constant flipper movement can kill the battery in just a few hours. "This is why we integrated both locomotion modes," he explained. "Such integration allows the robot to adapt to different environments, from shallow streams to deep lakes." Grace is designed to scour lakes and rivers for data to help cleaning efforts, and older prototypes have successfully found traces of crude oil in once spoiled riverbeds. The redesigned robot looks more like an airplane than a fish, but it's hard to argue with results -- the team says Grace should be able to glide through the water almost indefinitely. Check out the team's press release after the break.

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Source: MSU