Grad Student's Robot Fish Can Escape Prey Like the Real Thing

If you ever wanted proof that the more robotics can mimic nature, the more realistic (or creepy), and effective they'll be, look no further than the remarkable soft-tissue robot fish from MIT graduate student Andrew Marchese, which can apparently turn and swim away as well as a real fish.

The fully self-contained, autonomous robot features a rigid, 3D-printed head that contains the power source, computer, motors and sensors. The back-end of the body is made primarily of silicon (with a 3D-printed tail) and, according to Marchese, who built the swimming bot with a team of developers and programmers at Massachusetts Institute of technology, it's where they store all the natural movement parts. That construction, it turns out, also mimics the physiology of a real fish, with its brain contained in the rigid bony area up front and all the soft, pliable and movable material (mostly muscle) responsible for the fish's undulating motion in the back. Read more...