In a new study published in Science Robotics, researchers at MIT unveil what they say is the most advanced robotic fish of its kind ever built. Armed with a camera and a lifelike wiggle, the device could one day help biologists monitor the health of marine habitats without stressing out their aquatic denizens.
The Soft Robotic Fish, SoFi for short, is 18.5 inches long from snout to tail and weighs about 3.5 pounds. It can dive 60 feet underwater and is powered by enough juice for about 40 minutes of exploration.
To build better aquatic robots, researchers have mimicked tuna, jellyfish, and lobsters, and they’ve also built robots out of pliable materials, such as the squishy “octobot.”

“There will be a revolution in some fields with soft robots,” says SoFi’s co-creator Robert Katzschmann, a Ph.D. candidate at MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab. “It may be for underwater locomotion, but also walking robots or grasping robots. This whole field will see changes.”

read more at nationalgeographic.com