Posted on 06/23/2022 8:13:44 AM PDT by SJackson
Tiny self-propelled robo-fish can swim around, latch on to free-floating microplastics and fix itself if it gets damaged
Scientists have designed a tiny robot-fish that is programmed to remove microplastics from seas and oceans by swimming around and adsorbing them on its soft, flexible, self-healing body.
Microplastics are the billions of tiny plastic particles which fragment from the bigger plastic things used every day such as water bottles, car tyres and synthetic T-shirts. They are one of the 21st century’s biggest environmental problems because once they are dispersed into the environment through the breakdown of larger plastics they are very hard to get rid of, making their way into drinking water, produce, and food, harming the environment and animal and human health.
“It is of great significance to develop a robot to accurately collect and sample detrimental microplastic pollutants from the aquatic environment,” said Yuyan Wang, a researcher at the Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University and one of the lead authors on the study. Her team’s novel invention is described in a research paper in the journal Nano Letters. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of such soft robots.”
Researchers at Sichuan University have revealed an innovative solution to track down these pollutants when it comes to water contamination: designing a tiny self-propelled robo-fish that can swim around, latch on to free-floating microplastics, and fix itself if it gets cut or damaged while on its expedition.
The robo-fish is just 13mm long, and thanks to a light laser system in its tail, swims and flaps around at almost 30mm a second, similar to the speed at which plankton drift around in moving water.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
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So, they want to replace microplastics with a larger chunk of plastic that looks like a dirty fish that will probably lure even larger fish to swallow it.
Genius!
Why the heck does it have to swim around, in order to collect micro-particles? It's the sea! Just build some giant floating installation of this material and let the micro-particles come to it!
13-mm-long robo-fish, similar to plankton? Yeah, I bet the baleen whales will find them most tasty!
Regards,
The article no where addresses how they collect the little critters with their 5 kg of waste.
Yeah just wait until a whale swallows some robot fish and beaches itself.
Even George Costanza won’t be able to save it.
Why even make it to look like a fish? Why not a jellyfish? Why not make their particle collectors look like seaweed? Or not look like anything at all? Plastic particles wouldn’t care what they get stuck to.
I am surprised the Chinese haven’t thought of your sticky structure idea and use it for double duty... use the idea to manufacture islands for the Chinese Navy to expand its operations while under the cover of cleaning the oceans.
We need robowhales or packs of robosharks to devour the floating plastic heaps on the oceans.
Lol, they will all just float arohnd, and collect in massive mats of sea-debris
Oh, then they can have big plastic whalesharks do the collecting.
You dummy. So the little "fish" can sneak up without spooking the plastic. 😁
Wouldn’t all those tiny laser light systems built into the tails of these things have tiny batteries that will pollute worse than microplastics?
doh!
I think the used condoms floating off the coast of Southern California function the same way.
The Chinese will SELL the robots to western countries and continue dumping plastics into the oceans so as not to kill their market.
circa 2323... a giant plastic fish is a danger to shipping lanes as the tiny fish grows into a behemoth, 10 times larger than a blue whale.
"Coney Island Whitefish."
Regards,
Thought the same thing. It would be better to make them huge balls. They would collect more and not be in danger of being eaten.
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