Soft Robotic Fish Swims Alongside Real Ones in Coral Reefs

A team from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) unveiled “SoFi,” a soft robotic fish that can independently swim alongside real fish in the ocean. During test dives in the Rainbow Reef in Fiji, SoFi swam at depths of more than 50 feet for up to 40 minutes, nimbly handling currents and taking high-resolution photos and videos using a fisheye lens.

Using its undulating tail and a unique ability to control its own buoyancy, SoFi can swim in a straight line, turn, or dive up or down. (Photo courtesy of Joseph DelPreto, MIT CSAIL)

Using its undulating tail and the ability to control its own buoyancy, SoFi can swim in a straight line, turn, or dive up or down. The team also used a waterproofed Super Nintendo controller and developed a custom acoustic communications system that enabled them to change SoFi's speed and have it make specific moves and turns.

Existing autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have traditionally been tethered to boats or powered by bulky and expensive propellers. In contrast, SoFi has a much simpler and more lightweight setup, with a single camera, a motor, and the same lithium polymer battery that's found in consumer smartphones. To make the robot swim, the motor pumps water into two balloon-like chambers in the fish's tail that operate like a set of pistons in an engine. As one chamber expands, it bends and flexes to one side; when the actuators push water to the other channel, that one bends and flexes in the other direction. These alternating actions create a side-to-side motion that mimics the movement of a real fish. By changing its flow patterns, the hydraulic system enables different tail maneuvers that result in a range of swimming speeds, with an average speed of about half a body length per second.

The entire back half of the fish is made of silicone rubber and flexible plastic, and several components are 3D-printed, including the head, which holds all of the electronics. To reduce the chance of water leaking into the machinery, the team filled the head with a small amount of baby oil, since it's a fluid that will not compress from pressure changes during dives.

One of the biggest challenges was to get SoFi to swim at different depths. The robot has two fins on its side that adjust the pitch of the fish for up and down diving. To adjust its position vertically, the robot has an adjustable weight compartment and a buoyancy control unit that can change its density by compressing and decompressing air.

The project is part of a larger body of work at CSAIL focused on soft robots, which have the potential to be safer, sturdier, and more nimble than their hard-bodied counterparts. Soft robots are in many ways easier to control than rigid robots, since researchers don't have to worry quite as much about having to avoid collisions.

The team feels that a robot like this can help explore the reef more closely than current robots, both because it can get closer, more safely for the reef and because it can be better accepted by the marine species.

For more information, contact Adam Conner-Simons at 617-324-9135, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.