Given its environmental track record, the Kalamazoo River seemed the perfect place for Xiaobo Tan, a professor at Michigan State University, to test his robot: GRACE (Gliding Robot ACE), a robotic fish that
can examine water quality.
An older, “swimming” prototype of GRACE
According to MSU, GRACE has “the ability to glide through the water practically indefinitely, using little to no energy, while gathering valuable data that can aid in the cleaning of our lakes and rivers.”
The new robot is propelled by pumping water into and out of ballasts in order to rise and sink. For extra maneuverability, Tan and his team coupled the pump with a swimming motion.
According to Tan “we integrated both locomotion modes – gliding and swimming – in our robot… Such integration also allows the robot to adapt to different environments, from shallow streams to deep lakes, from calm ponds to rivers, with rapid currents.”
While GRACE is still in testing, Professor Tan is encouraged by his initial results. “She swam at three sites along the river and wirelessly sent back sensor readings… I’m not sure, but we may have set a world record – demonstrating robotic fish-based sampling with commercial water-quality sensors in a real-world environment.”
Watch a Video of GRACE in Action Below:
Read More about GRACE at MSU
Images & Video Courtesy of MSU