Scientists design robots that can catch, release live fish

Representational image

New Delhi: Scientists have designed new robots that can catch and release live fish.

The robots, that move when water is pumped in and out of them, are made entirely of hydrogel - a tough, rubbery, nearly transparent material composed mostly of water.

Each robot is an assemblage of hollow, precisely designed hydrogel structures, connected to rubbery tubes. When the researchers pump water into the hydrogel robots, the structures quickly inflate in orientations that enable the bots to curl up or stretch out.

The team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US fashioned several hydrogel robots, including a finlike structure that flaps back and forth, an articulated appendage that makes kicking motions, and a soft, hand-shaped robot that can squeeze and relax.

As the robots are both powered by and made almost entirely of water, they have similar visual and acoustic properties to water, researchers said.

They propose that these robots, if designed for underwater applications, may be virtually invisible.

The group, led by Xuanhe Zhao, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, and graduate student Hyunwoo Yuk, is currently looking to adapt hydrogel robots for medical applications.

(With PTI inputs)