A new robotic fish may one day change the way port security is achieved.
Researchers at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University are developing an underwater robot capable of swimming efficiently for long distances, performing swift fish-like maneuvers and operating in waters of various depths.
The robot fish belong to the emerging field of ethorobotics, the study of bio-inspired robots capable of interacting with, and influencing the behavior of, live animals as part of wildlife conservation. Robotic fish could be used to, say, steer fish schools away from dangers of oil spills, dams or turbines.
But the robo-fish may also be useful in helping to augment homeland security.
“Robotic fish may find application in continuously monitoring aqueous environments in a biomimetic manner,” said Maurizio Porfiri, of NYU-Poly’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Porfiri told Homeland1 that groups of coordinated and autonomous robotic fish equipped with a spectrum of sensors could be used to explore and patrol marine environments.
One of the homeland security applications would likely be helping to secure the nation’s ports. Security at the Port of Los Angeles, for instance, is currently achieved in part by Los Angeles Police Department divers who must swim on their backs — in close quarters in foul, murky harbor waters with little visibility — in search of any explosive devices that might be attached to the hulls of cargo or cruise ships.
Water depth in the Los Angeles port is so shallow that often the divers’ scuba tanks rub the bottom of the harbor while the divers swim back and forth under loaded container ships very close above them.
Any sort of robot that could do the same job efficiently would likely be welcome.
Schools of Porfiri’s robotic fish equipped with cameras and explosives sensors could be dispatched in ports all over the world to scan ship hulls. The scanning could even be done in waters outside the ports, to further prevent terrorists from crippling world economies by simultaneously sinking cargo vessels in port channels.
NYU-Poly photo. Bio-inspired robotic fish could help protect the nation’s ports.
Securing the Port of Los Angeles is imperative to the economic health of the entire nation. The port, which can service 14 container ships simultaneously, is the busiest container port in the United States and the 16th-busiest such port in the world. It and the neighboring Port of Long Beach together account for nearly 40 percent of all U.S. cargo container imports.