Future ships to wiggle and swim like fish

275x250.jpgBoffins have developed a robot which uses the locomotional patterns of marine animals to move through water more efficiently than standard propulsion methods.

Before you doze off, what that basically means is that in the future boats will wiggle and swim through the water like fish.

Researchers from the University of Darmstadt analyzed hundreds of videos of fish swimming before building their 1.5m long bot, and hoped in the future their tech will be used for ship propulsion.

They add that the snaking motions would also be more efficient and reduce the churning up of seabeds ... I can't see it helping people with seasickness too much though.
The fish robot, dubbed "Smoky" consists of a skeleton composed of ten segments enshrouded in an elastic skin that are free to move relative to one another and caused to undergo snaking motions similar to those of fish by waterproof actuators.

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Technische Universität Darmstadt   
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