“Essex robotic fish, which is 1.8 metres long and funded by an EU ICT project named SHOAL, is successfully swimming in the sea water at the Port of Gijon, Spain after three years of development, in collaboration with 5 other EU partners. It patrols the sea coast to detect and identify potential pollution in the port.
The SHOAL project has made several major developments: artificial intelligence based algorithms, novel robotic fish development, real-time chemical analysis, underwater communication and hydrodynamics modelling. It is the worlds first of such a system capable of detecting and analysing pollutants in the sea water in real time. The robotic fish developed at Essex is able to operate in a harsh and dynamic condition of the sea up to a depth of 30 metres. This is a great advancement, comparing with most of the previous robotic fish operating in laboratory conditions and static water.” Read more at http://www.essex.ac.uk/csee/department/news/newsletter/21_05_12.aspx