The world under the ocean has still many secrets that we are not aware of and MIT engineers are now ready to explore the unexplored regions under the water with their latest invention called the Robofish. The prototype looks very much like a trout and contains only 10 parts which are covered by a body made from single soft polymer. MIT engineers confessed that the inspiration for making such a device came from Robotuna which was first invented in the year 1994 but it did not succeed because the fish was too large and contained thousands of parts which could not stand the test of time and the harsh conditions under water.

Now with the invention of the so-called Robofish, MIT engineers are ready to take this device to the bottom of the ocean floor where these devices will detect the pollution levels and inspect and survey various oil and gas pipelines. The device has been designed in such a way that is mimics the movements of a real fish and since the body is more streamlined and sleek it can dive into the deeper sections of the ocean to find the information we want.

The engineers at MIT are very happy about the invention because they feel that this device will work because it has gone through some harsh conditions in the lab and the overall cost of production is very low which means that if successful they can create thousands of such devices which they can release in the bay to inspect, survey and relay information to us. In other words, this robofish acts like a watchful guard inside the sea through which we can monitor the situations happening inside the water. Currently, the research is funded by an oil exploration company named Schlumberger but MIT engineers have said that even US Navy is now interested in their robofish project.

Jyotsna Ramani