Frickin Robot Sharks With Frickin Laser Beams Can't Be Far Off

MIT scientists have worked out a way to create schools of robotic "fish" submersibles useful for probing the ocean depths.

Schools of robotic fish could one day map the ocean floor, detect pollution or inspect and survey submerged boats or oil and gas pipelines, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say.

MIT engineers are showing off the latest generation of so-called robofish 15 years after they built the first one. The latest incarnation is sleeker, more streamlined and capable of mimicking the movements of a real fish.

And it's capable of exploring underwater terrain submersibles can't, said Pablo Valdivia Alvarado, a mechanical engineer at the school.

"Some of our sponsors were thinking of using them for inspection and surveillance," Alvarado said. "Since these prototypes are very cheap, the idea was to build hundreds -- 200, 500 -- and then just release them in a bay or at a port, and they would be roaming around taking measurements."

First thing that comes to mind for me is the fact that these little guys have pretty obvious military applications for submarine hunting, and that enemy subs wouldn't be able to detect the robofish because, well, they'd show up as a school of fish on sonar. That's just off the top of my head, I'm not sure how advanced these guys are in relaying real-time oceanographic info or if it's even possible with a robot fish that small, but you can bet somebody in the Navy wants these little guys and is thinking exactly along those lines.

If you can hunt submarines without having to muck about with actual submarines, you win.