Why Eel Drones Are the Future of Naval Warfare
In the decade ahead, unmanned underwater vehicles, or UUVs, may have the same sort of disruptive effects on militaries as their flying counterparts. More than 12 countries are at work on undersea robots, which some militaries, including the United States, use to check for mines, map the sea floor and collect weather data. There’s no reason they couldn’t be used to defend battleships from small boats or even carry out attacks on enemy divers. But what will they look like? A team of researchers from Singapore led by Jianxin Xu recently debuted a robotic eel design prototype that could signal the future of undersea warfare.
“Anguilliform [eel like] fish consume less energy when on a long distance journey than regular autonomous underwater vehicles,” Xu told Defense One. “They are highly maneuverable and flexible, making them more suitable than Gliders for navigating small spaces… The noiseless propulsion is another advantage” for the military, he says. “They’re less detectable than robot subs that propel themselves the same way as conventional subs.”
Xu’s design represents a breakthrough robotic fish that effectively mimic the rather unique way that eels and other anguilliform fish swim. His paper describing the prototype and all the software that went into making it work, was published in the most recent issue of the Unmanned Systems journal. But while it’s close to nature, it’s not the first robotic fish or even the first robotic eel. The U.S. Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have explored designs that look like actual sea life, such as robotic jellyfish, manta rays, tuna and eels for years.
I wonder if robot eel are as good a bait for Striped Bass as live ells?
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| Robot jellyfish |
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