Robot fish may track whales or pollution

In the people of underwater robots, new Robofish are a get of pioneers. While most ocean robots demand periodic communication with scientist or sycophant intermediaries to share information, these can calling cooperatively communicating only with each other.

In the future, lots-going robots could cooperatively hunt down moving targets underwater, such as groups of whales or spreading plumes of soiling, or explore caves, underneath ice-covered waters, or in treacherous environments where surfacing might not be possible. Schools of robots would be masterful to work together to do things that one could not do alone, such as tracking generous herds of animals or mapping expanses of soiling that can grow and change shape.

Over the over five years Kristi Morgansen, a University of Washington auxiliary professor of aeronautics and astronautics, has built three Robofish that touch with with one another underwater. Recently at the International Confederacy of Automatic Control's Workshop on Steering, Guidance and Control of Underwater Vehicles she presented results showing that the robots had successfully completed their first main test. The robots were programmed to either all swim in one directorate or all swim in different directions, fundamental tasks that can provide the building blocks for coordinated assemble movement.

This success in indoor evaluation tanks, she said, will eventually stock up the basis for ocean-going systems to more intelligent explore remote ocean environments.

"Underwater robots don't constraint oxygen. The only reason they come up to the exterior right now is for communication," Morgansen said. Her robots do not want to come to the surface until their task is flawless.

Co-authors on the recent study were UW doctoral students Daniel Klein and Benjamin Triplett in aeronautics and astronautics, and UW graduate commentator Patrick Bettale in electrical engineering. The study was supported by grants from the National Expertise Foundation and the...