Fast swimming fish robot could perform underwater surveillance

A tuna-inspired robot can wriggle just as fast as real fish and swim faster than most other robots of its type. This "Tunabot" could help us learn how fish use their fins and may someday be used for underwater surveillance. Hilary Bart-Smith at the University of Virginia and her colleagues built Tunabot from 3D-printed steel and resin, covered in stretchy plastic skin. It is designed to mimic an adolescent tuna, but without any fins other than the tail, and is about 25 centimetres long. The team chose to model the robot after a tuna because the fish can swim extremely fast with high energy efficiency.