On June 12 2014, Warren Tarboton, a mechatronics engineering student from Curtin University, stood by the Bentley campus Koi pond holding a robotic fish the size of an A4 sheet of paper, ready to let the robot swim with live fish for the first time.<\/p>\n
As Warren placed his fish into the pond the other fish darted away, but in a matter of minutes, the koi fish carried on with their normal behaviour and swimming patterns – seemingly unfazed.<\/p>\n
The robotic fish, or as Warren calls it, The<\/i> fish, was created for Warren\u2019s fourth year thesis project. With the help of three 3D printers, each printing with a different, speciality plastic, Warren was able to create the \u2018skeleton\u2019, fins and the internal mechanisms of the fish. The external \u2018skin\u2019 of the fish was made out of silicon, resulting in a milky white body with electric blue fins.<\/p>\n
Although the robotic fish may not look like an authentic fish to the naked eye, when placed in the water its movements are near identical to a live fish.<\/p>\n
But outside of novelty factors, why create a robotic fish?<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of robotic fish just swim around their local environmental and don\u2019t interact with the local fish population\u2019,\u00a0says Warren, \u201cBut I thought, \u2018what if a robot could interact with the local fish?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
[youtube]http:\/\/youtu.be\/QpZRzn6mbDc[\/youtube]<\/p>\n
Warren created his robot to emulate the shape and\u00a0movements of black bream, which are endemic to the rivers and estuaries around Perth.<\/p>\n
Because of its lifelike movements and appearance underwater, the robotic fish has the ability to blend in with shoals of real fish, enabling the user to monitor local\u00a0fish to better understand the effects of\u00a0environmental conditions such as algae blooms and\u00a0water contamination indicators.<\/p>\n
Warren\u2019s research led him to a unique behavioral attribute of fish,\u00a0stating that “if\u00a0a fish mimics the speed and coloring patterns of another fish population, those fish will tend to follow the mimicking fish.\u201d Keeping in mind that the external silicon mold of Warren\u2019s fish could be changed to emulate the colouring patterns of a variety of fish species, the potential uses of robotic fish are endless, from research to fish herding.<\/p>\n
Warren also noted that his fish is probably\u00a0the fastest fish for its size, swimming at 3 body lengths per second, which is almost double the speed of other known prototypes.\u00a0At the moment it\u00a0can swim forward, change its speed and turn left and right. There are plans to further develop the fish to include external sensors which\u00a0would enhance its information gathering potential. So what\u2019s next for Warren? At the moment, he\u2019s focused on passing his final exams and securing a job.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On June 12 2014, Warren Tarboton, a mechatronics engineering student from Curtin University, stood by the Bentley campus Koi pond holding a robotic fish the size of an A4 sheet of paper, ready to let<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":4943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-4942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Mechatronic Engineering","qualification":"Bachelor of Engineering","link":"http:\/\/courses.curtin.edu.au\/course_overview\/undergraduate\/mechatronic-engineering","description":"Mechatronic engineering is near the forefront of technology, creating smarter products, devices and processes. Mechatronic systems can be found in most industrial and commercial products, from cars and aircraft to medical and surgical devices.
\n<\/ins><\/p>\n
\n
\nMechatronic engineers may design and maintain electronic and computer controlled systems, including power generators, mining and chemical plant machinery","faculty":"Science and Engineering"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Warren-6.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Curtin University"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 22:58:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4942"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=4942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}