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."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:05PM
First ghost!
(Score: 1) by mtrycz on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:07PM
I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 3, Funny) by ticho on Sunday February 16 2014, @11:10PM
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
I'm picturing the robofish swimming in the ponds and rivers as the octocopter drones come in and pick them up for delivery.
(Score: 1) by crutchy on Monday February 17 2014, @07:42AM
they're designed to battle sharks with "lazerz"
(Score: 2, Informative) by smaug9 on Monday February 17 2014, @12:03AM
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
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?
I hope I can change this later...
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2014, @05:32AM
(Score: 1) by nobbis on Monday February 17 2014, @09:34AM
I wish my species was called Black Ghost Knife instead of er.. Human
It's easy to look up when your mind's in the gutter
(Score: 2, Funny) by NecroDM on Monday February 17 2014, @12:11PM
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
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?
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 1) by lubricus on Monday February 17 2014, @03:03PM
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