Some 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the nearest sea, engineering students at Switzerland’s ETH Zurich are hard at work on cutting-edge robots that may change the way the world’s oceans are studied. Eve the robotic fish swings its silicone tail side to side, powered by pumps hidden inside, as it glides fluidly through Lake Zurich’s chilly water, where it is being tested by SURF-eDNA. The student-led group has spent the past two years building a school of soft robotic fish – of which Eve is the latest.
Eve’s ability to camouflage itself as a fish isn’t its only utility. The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is also equipped with a camera to film underwater, and sonar, which when paired with an algorithm, allows it to avoid obstacles. The AUV also features a filter to collect DNA from the environment, known as eDNA, as it swims. The eDNA particles can be sent to a laboratory for sequencing to determine what species live in the body of water. The students hope that Eve will be able to give scientists a more detailed picture of the oceans and their inhabitants.
More information:
https://edition.cnn.com/science/switzerland-dna-collecting-robot-fish-hnk-spc/index.html