The fish, created by the Boya Gongdao company, was placed in a giant transparent tank. Onlookers thought it was a real Arowana fish because it swam in the water and would hold its head up when there were barriers, then continued to swim again. The creators carefully studied the movement of the actual fish so that they could apply it to the robot.
The company plans to sell Robo-fish to aquariums at home and abroad, hoping to save endangered fish by reducing marine life investments. On top of protecting marine creatures by keeping them in the ocean where they belong, aquariums can use the robot fish to interact with tourists. Besides, it also adds an exciting element of science and technology to the fish tank.
Robo-fish has several features which involve highly efficient sensors and receptors. In addition, it has a global vision control technology and a battery that lasts around 6-8 hours per charge...
Regular Technovelgy readers are familiar with the robofish from Slow Life by Michael Swanwick; the linked page has a number of robot fish references and articles.
But given the extremely realistic appearance and behavior of the Boya Gongdao robo-fish, and its use in aquaria, I thought I'd reference the metal fish from Atom Drive (1956) by Charles Fontenay:
Deveet’s line tightened. He pulled in a streamlined, flapping object from which the light glistened wetly.
“Good catch,” complimented Jonner. “That’s worth a full credit.”
Deveet unhooked his catch and laid it on the bank beside him. It was a metal fish: live fish were unknown on Mars. They paid for the privilege of fishing for a certain time and any fish caught were “sold” back to the management at a fixed price, depending on size, to be put back into the lake.
As far as I know, the earliest use of the phrase "robot fish" is in At Kokomo Joe's, by Brooke Stauffer, published by Aboriginal Science Fiction in 1989.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/29/2024)
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