Spain is going “fishy”…  The waters of the port of Gijon are shortly to be invaded by robots.Scientists are building a robot fish to be let loose in the port to check on the quality of the water. Modelled on carp and costing about $29,000 each to make, the fish are to be lifelike in appearance and swimming behaviour so they will not alarm their fellow marine inhabitants.

The fish were developed by the University of Essex in Britain and UK-based engineering consultancy BMT Group. They are the result of a three-year research project funded by the European Commission. The robots are equipped with tiny chemical sensors capable of detecting pollutants in the water.

“This efficiency is something we need to ensure that our pollution detection sensors can navigate in the underwater environment for hours on end.”

Each robotic fish is about 1.5 metres long and can swim at a maximum speed of about one metre per second. Whenever they find traces of pollutants, the fish can relay the information to the shore.

The robots are autonomous, rather than remote-controlled, and run on batteries that are recharged every eight hours or so when the fish return automatically to a charging point.

The final touches are still being made to the design of the fish, which are scheduled to be released into the port’s waters next year.