Shoal-Robot Fish Pollution Fighter in the Ocean

The era of coastal water pollution monitoring technology has undergone considerable leap forward with the introduction of powerful robot named Shoal.

The Shoal Consortium's robo-fish could provide round the clock protection against harmful pollutants by patrolling in teams. (Picture from: http://www.treehugger.com/)

The Shoal Consortium, a group comprised of European universities and businesses, has come up with a high-tech way to keep an eye out for pollution in European harbors: robotic fish. These robo-fish, which were developed to look like and swim like real fish, can autonomously seek out pollution, debris and chemicals in the water and then feed information back to shore where it can be analyzed.

Inside of the Shoal-robot fish. (Picture from: http://www.gizmag.com/)

Robo-fish are nothing new, we've covered a few versions here before, from amazingly realistic-looking ones that scan the open ocean for pollutants to those that lead other fish away from danger, like turbines of power plants or oil spills, but these have the special task of monitoring the water in and around Europe's harbors, where the constant in and out of ships has lead to a lot of non-policed polluting.

"The idea is that we want to have real-time monitoring of pollution, so that if someone is dumping chemicals or something is leaking, we can get to it straight away, find out what is causing the problem and put a stop to it," explains Luke Speller, a senior scientist at the research division of BMT Group, which is part of the consortium, to BBC News.

The Shoal-Robot fish when tested in the waters of the Port of Gijon, Spain. (Picture from: http://www.gizmag.com/)

European scientists are developing a robot fish is known to improve the monitoring of water pollution. They lowered the robot from the laboratory to the sea for the purposes of testing at the Port Gijon, Spain.

The researchers claim the robotic fish is capable of detecting pollutants in the sea in a matter of seconds, they usually have to spend many weeks to analyze these pollutants. The fish use micro-electrode arrays to detect contaminants like phenols and heavy metals such as copper and lead, as well as monitor oxygen levels and salinity. The scientists developed the robots to have interchangeable sensors, so depending on the body of water, it can be outfitted with chemical sensor units that pick up different things like sulphates or phosphates.

Robot fish that has a length of 1.5 meters was designed specifically to be able to swim like a fish in general, and is equipped with sensors to pick up pollutants leaking from the ship or submarine pipeline. The robot fish is also equipped with the ability to clean up oil spills, and perform underwater security, surveillance for divers, or find people who drowned. *** [JAM | TREEHUGGER | BBC | PIKIRAN RAKYAT 11102012]

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