British scientists have come up with a colourful and creative way to detect pollution in the sea. They have created a carp-shaped robot that looks like a fish, acts like a fish, but of course, isn’t a fish.
Each “Ëœrobo fish’ is capable of navigating around without human intervention and has chemical sensors that enable it to sniff out potential hazardous pollutants. Information collected can be transmitted back to shore in real time via WiFi technology.
These cute but costly ($29,000 each) little fellows are roughly the size of a seal and have yet to be let loose in the sea. A five robotic fish trial is planned for next year in the northern Spanish port of Gijon. It’s hoped that, if successful, the robotic fish will be used in ports to monitor emissions and leaks from large ships. Eventually, though, the aim is for them to be used as pollution detection sensors in rivers, lakes, and seas across the world.