Fish robots rescue the fish from the oil spill

British biologists have used robotic, superficially carp-like fish to study the rules of fish behavior and the rules of fish movement for fishermen.

Journal of Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology , Professor Jolyon Faria, University of Leeds (UK) and colleagues in Germany, Australia and the United States have created robotic fish (called Robofish) to study the rules of activity. fish movement. They released the robotic fish into the fish tank along with the captured fish in the Eau River, using CCTV cameras to monitor their behavior.

A robot fish made by scientists. Photo: ABC.

Experimentation shows that real fish not only accept their 'artificial brothers ' but also treat the ' fake ' fish as ' leaders ' and swim blindly. the junior under the lead of the fish head.

" More than that, we found that the robots were able to pull the single live fish out of the cave and join in the swarms to join the leader ."

The researchers also determined that the interaction between the fish in the flock when changing the direction of swimming: They depend on the fish next to it rather than the distance to the leading fish.

" Our robotic approach is an effective way to study fish behavior in a brood, their behavior and morphology, how they behave in a group ... This allows us to understand more clearly not just the behavior of fish but also of other creatures in general '.

Most recently, the robots once again came into play when they were dropped to guide fish populations living near the shoreline out of oil contaminated areas during the recent oil spill incident in the Gulf of Mexico.