This marvelous coelacanth robot was handcrafted by Masamichi Hayashi, president of marine education establishment kyg-lab. My title for this article was meant to rekindle some of the excitement everyone felt when living coelacanths were discovered; paleontologists had believed them to be extinct since the end of the Cretaceous period.
(Coelacanth robot by Masamichi Hayashi video)
Hayashi is a self-taught roboticist; he has built over 100 robotic marine creatures from recycled items such as plastic bottles, food containers, styrofoam, raincoats, and windshield wiper motors. His experience as a marine scientist has obviously served him well, as the remarkable realism demonstrated in the video shows.
Regular technovelgy readers know about my favorite science-fictional robotic fish, the Mitsubishi robot turbot from Michael Swanwick's 2002 story Slow Life.
I like real-life robotic fish stories; perhaps you'll like one of these:
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