This robot follows the fish. | Image: @ronen_segev on Twitter
Something interesting swam across my Twitter feed recently: a video of a goldfish that seemed to be controlling a robotic fish tank with wheels, with the contraption following the direction the fish was swimming. “Oh no,” I thought. “They gave this goldfish a robot, and now it’s unstoppable.”
Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like it was done as a part of some evil plot. The goldfish mech suit was posted by Ronen Segev, a researcher on a team that was looking into how animals navigate. Helpfully, Segev links to a full research paper in the Twitter thread, which should offer more insight into the project.
The fish were tasked to “drive” the vehicle towards a visual target in the terrestrial environment, which was observable through the walls…
