AI Robot Fish Helps Scientists Monitor and Protect Marine Ecosystems

Researchers in Switzerland have developed an autonomous fish robot that can give marine biologists a clearer, more complete picture of underwater creatures without disturbing their habitat.

Autonomous fish can collect eDNA samples and film underwater, providing a detailed panorama of the underground environment without negatively affecting seabed organisms.

The fish robot, called Belle , is specially designed to collect valuable research data and monitor seafloor waters while having minimal impact on the habitat of marine life.

'We want to record and understand ecosystems in their natural habitat,' Leon Guggenheim, a mechanical engineering student at ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, told Reuters.

Mr. Guggenheim commented that Belle operates silently, moving like a real fish, without creating mechanical noise or causing disturbance when maneuvering in the water environment.

Switzerland develops AI robot fish to study the seabed, where coral reefs are located. (EuroNews.Next Video)

'Those subsea areas are particularly vulnerable to mechanical systems moving by propellers, which can damage coral reefs or scare away fish,' explains Robert Katzschmann, Associate Professor of Robotics at ETH Zurich.

The fish robot is applied with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, allowing for complete autonomous navigation underwater, can collect DNA samples and record high-resolution videos, integrating into the coral reef environment on the seabed.

Measuring just under a meter and weighing nearly 10 kilograms when lifted out of the water, Belle is propelled by a silicon tail fin with two chambers that periodically pump water in.

'A system of electric pumps fills and drains these chambers, and the pressure change moves the fins back and forth, as one chamber on one side creates high pressure and one on the other side creates a vacuum. The pressure difference bends the fins in a certain direction ,' says Guggenheim.

Belle Robot Fish.

The design goal is for the robot to operate fully autonomously for 2 hours before the environmental DNA (eDNA) filter becomes too full and the robot's battery needs to be replaced.

'The fish robot swims to the surface, sends us a GPS signal, and we come to collect the device, ' said Guggenheim. 'Of course, it could be designed to send data to the human operators, but the idea is that the mission is so long that the battery also has to be replaced or recharged, the environmental DNA filter also has to be replaced, so there is no need to send data, when scientists are forced to manually retrieve data from the environmental DNA filter.'

The team hopes their robot will help marine biologists study the health and biodiversity of different coral reef ecosystems, which are heavily impacted by overfishing, seabed pollution and climate change.