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If you want to find Nemo, try using SoFi

WHEN exploring marine environments, underwater robots tend to be a bull trout in a china shop, disturbing marine life with their bulk and disruptive propulsion. Enter SoFi, the soft, agile robotic fish with a delicate demeanor.

Scientists have created a remote-controlled robot that swims quietly through coral reefs and schools of fish and uses a fisheye lens to capture high-resolution photos and video with a camera built into its nose.

Dubbed SoFi, it can swim forward, move up and down, turn and change speeds, propelling itself by wiggling its tail side to side like a real fish, a motion created by pumping water with a small motor into two balloon-like tail chambers. SoFi, built with a generic fish design, is white, weighs less than 1.6kg and is about 47cm long.

SoFi’s “soft artificial muscle” tail is made of silicone elastomer, a type of rubber. Its nose houses the electronic elements. It has two side fins for maneuvering.

“I chose SoFi, pronounced like Sophie, as a name because it not only abbreviates the word Soft Fish, but it also reminded me of a girl I liked a lot and had a crush on in high school,” said study lead author Robert Katzschmann.

SoFi is operated using a water-proofed Super Nintendo controller by a diver who can be almost 21 metres away. CSAIL researchers tested SoFi in South Pacific coral reefs and coastal waters near Taveuni, Fiji’s third-largest island, as well as in an MIT pool.

The untethered robot navigates for up to 40 minutes at depths reaching almost 18 metres.

Existing autonomous underwater vehicles typically are tethered to boats and powered by propellers or jets that can disrupt the natural environment. SoFi swims alongside fish and other marine creatures without sending them fleeing. – Reuters

PICTURE: REUTERS SoFi the robot fish swims at Rainbow Reef off Taveuni, Fiji.