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posted by mattie_p on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the but-can-it-weave-a-basket dept.

janrinok writes:

"The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is providing many interesting news items this week. The BBC reports that the Black Ghost Knifefish has inspired construction of a new robot. The robotic fish would be able to swim in underwater situation where it would be impossible or too dangerous for a human to swim."

Read more below.

"'Today, we don't really have underwater robots that work well in really cluttered conditions or in conditions where vision isn't useful,' said Prof Malcolm MacIver. 'Just consider the sunken cruise ship. It is very dangerous to send divers into such situations where the water can be very cloudy.'

It is the special propulsion technique employed by knifefish that the Northwestern researcher primarily wants to copy: the ripples sent through the long fin on the belly. Undulate one way, and the fish will move forward; undulate the other way, and the direction of travel is reversed. Using counter-propagating waves that meet in the middle, the fish will move vertically."

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:05PM (#334)

    First ghost!

  • (Score: 1) by mtrycz on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:07PM

    by mtrycz (60) on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:07PM (#335)

    I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords.

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    • (Score: 3, Funny) by ticho on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:10PM

      by ticho (89) on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:10PM (#336) Homepage Journal

      You say this now, but wait until such robotic fish start jumping at you from your toilet!

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:44PM (#339)

    I'm picturing the robofish swimming in the ponds and rivers as the octocopter drones come in and pick them up for delivery.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by smaug9 on Monday February 17 2014, @12:03AM

    by smaug9 (96) on Monday February 17 2014, @12:03AM (#344)

    from wikipedia:

            The role these FMs have in communication is significant, as black
            ghost knifefish have developed jamming avoidance responses, which are
            behavioral responses that avoid the overlapping of EOD frequencies
            between conspecific individuals to prevent sensory confusion.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by combatserver on Monday February 17 2014, @12:17AM

    by combatserver (38) on Monday February 17 2014, @12:17AM (#349)

    The AAAS page looks like a CSS test page without scripts allowed.

    Is it just me or does 90% of the internet content look exactly the same?

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    I hope I can change this later...
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:32AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:32AM (#407)
    Expected article about new battery powered fish from Amazon.com.</disappoint>
  • (Score: 1) by nobbis on Monday February 17 2014, @09:34AM

    by nobbis (62) on Monday February 17 2014, @09:34AM (#529) Homepage Journal

    I wish my species was called Black Ghost Knife instead of er.. Human

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by NecroDM on Monday February 17 2014, @12:11PM

    by NecroDM (376) on Monday February 17 2014, @12:11PM (#604)

    Step 1) Create robotic fish
    Step 2) Upgrade robotic fish to robotic shark
    Step 3) Install lasers on robot sharks
    Step 4) Profit!

    There's no "???" step before the profit step, as soon as you have robot sharks with lasers on their heads profit comes naturally :)

  • (Score: 1) by CoolHand on Monday February 17 2014, @01:05PM

    by CoolHand (438) on Monday February 17 2014, @01:05PM (#651) Journal

    Back in the day, when I had aquarium setups, my favorite fish was a black "ghost knife".. I think that it may be the same fish as this, but I can't tell from the crappy picture in the link... Can anyone confirm that?

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    • (Score: 1) by lubricus on Monday February 17 2014, @03:03PM

      by lubricus (232) on Monday February 17 2014, @03:03PM (#756)

      Should be, common names are also difficult. Checked some papers, and the one they work on is:
      Apteronotus albifrons, which is the common black ghost knife. It is also pretty clear from the robot that it was inspired by this fish.

      --
      ... sorry about the typos