ETH Zurich researchers in Switzerland have developed Belle, an AI robot fish designed to protect marine ecosystems and collect DNA samples, right along side this robotic jellyfish. This 3-foot-long robot moves silently and does not create a disruptive wake as it moves along in the ocean autonomously, while a high-resolution video camera records footage.
It weighs around 10 kg (22 lb) out of the water, but when moving underwater, two cavities in the silicone tail pump water and allows its fin to move stealthily. The goal is for the robot to run for two hours autonomously before its eDNA filter is emptied and battery needs to be replaced. Eventually, they hope the robot can aid marine biologists in studying the health and biodiversity of various reef ecosystems that have been impacted by pollution as well as climate change.
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These cavities are filled and emptied with water through a pump system, and that moves the fin back and forth, because you have a cavity on one side which creates an over-pressure and a cavity on the other side which creates a vacuum. That then bends the fin in one direction. It swims to the surface, sends us a GPS signal and then we go and pick it up again,” said Leon Guggenheim, Mechanical Engineering student at ETH Zurich.
