An AI Fish Called Wanda? Maybe Someday Soon
Digital CxO, Wednesday, November 27th, 2024
How's this for a fishy AI story? Researchers at Florida Atlantic University's engineering school have won an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a school of bio-robotic fish.
The underwater project - which combines undulating propulsion with software-programmable, multi-function wireless sensing and communications - is being helmed by FAU's Center for Connected Autonomy and AI (CA-AI) and the SeaTech Institute. And it is likely to redefine how sensitive underwater ecosystems such as sea grass, mangrove forests, kelp forests and coral reefs are studied and protected via swarms of underwater drones.
Scientists intend to use the research to explore remote aquatic environments that have been unsafe or hard for human divers or other engineered systems to reach.