Shark-robot US Navy

The device looks and swims like a real fish.

The US military continues to imitate nature itself in the design of its robots. In fact, using the result of hundreds of millions of years of evolution is very logical.

The last result of the implementation of this principle was GhostSwimmer or Silent Nemo, which testing ended last week. This drone swims under water and is so similar to a real fish that it can scare a gaping swimmer.

The shown robot has a length of one and a half meters and weighs approximately 45 kg. Its size is similar to that of an adult long-fin tuna, but from a distance it can be mistaken for a shark. The robot was created as part of an experiment to study the possibilities of borrowing the principles of constructing living organisms to create unmanned underwater vehicles.
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CRIC (Chief of Naval Operations Rapid Innovation Cell) is working on the project at the JEBLC-FS (Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story) military base in Virginia.

Like a real fish, the robot uses a tail to move and control its direction. Photos and videos captured ( 1 , 2 ) as the GhostSwimmer floats on the surface, but it can dive to a depth of about 90 meters. The robot is able to work in shallow water at 25 cm.

The fish is controlled by a 150 m long cable, but it can also swim by itself, occasionally returning to the surface for communication. The device has back and pectoral fins.

The robot moves like a fish, so it is very difficult to distinguish it, or at least distinguish it against the background of real marine fauna. In addition, the sound of the movement of the fins is harder to record than the noise of the propeller.

The purpose of the project is reconnaissance and surveillance, as well as much more peaceful goals, for example, studying the state of the hull of friendly ships. It is possible that there are goals to appease animal rights activists by transferring the functions of existing dolphin training programs to robots to search for underwater mines.

GhostSwimmer is not the first draft of the American military, within which borrowed the principles of the movement of animals. Before him were the cheetah Cheetah , which reaches a speed of up to ≈45 km / h, the Stickybot robot , capable of climbing by imitating the tissues of the gecko's paws, and the iSprawl cockroach, covering 2.28 meters per second. US Ground Forces create Maveric robot bird.

There is a similar fish in another US state structure: The Department of Homeland Security is working on the BIOSwimmer project.

On the cost and the approximate timing of the start of operation GhostSwimmer is not reported.

Based on Wired.com .