Schools of robotic fish could produce a 3D pollution map of seas, lakes and rivers and help to quickly detect environmntal emergencies. These RoboFish are the result of a £2.5million EU-funded project to find new ways of monitoring water waste realized by researchers at the University of Essex in Colchester.
Each fish will be about 150cm long, 15cm high and 12cm wide and will be a very advanced piece of technology: not only they can swim by theirselves without the need of any remote control (unlike previous version) they can communicate each other and with the researchers with Wi-Fi technology. The most amazing feature however is certainly their pollution sensors that can electronically 'sniff' harmful chemicals in the water. Therefore they could be nicknamed not only RoboFish but also RoboBloodhound...
Schools of five fish, worth some $29,000 each, are being released into the Bay of Biscay at Gijon in northern Spain as part of a three-year joint project between BMT Group and researchers at Essex University in England. In the future they could also be released in a variety of water bodies such as the metropolitan stretch of rivers like the Thames in London to supervise the quality of the waters.