Apparently fish are less alien to their robotic counterparts than you might expect…
Scientists wanted to find the behavior of fish by using a robot to emulate behavior in nature. So researchers from the New York Polytechnic Institute. However, they didn’t expect that the fish would take to the robotic fish so quickly, not to mention letting it lead.
This was surprising because the robot fish was almost twice as large as the fish (Gold Shiners), and they didn’t even look that similar. However, with the right frequency and motion of the tail, for some reason, the fish went in line behind it anyways.
With different velocities of water came different tail motions that made fish follow, but whatever the situation, the fish always liked to be behind the robotic fish. The researchers speculate that perhaps this is because fish benefit because of the energy advantage of moving in a school.
Scientists are hopeful for what this robotic fish could mean. It shows that real fish are not adverse to being lead by robotic fish, and this could potentially allow scientists to lead fish away from disasters such as oil spills and underwater turbines, which would be a huge step in securing biodiversity.
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