Small, medium or large, a robotic fish maintains its swimming ability
Small, medium or large, a robotic fish maintains its swimming ability
Researchers from EPFL and NYU have developed ScaFi, a scalable robotic fish that mimics the swimming motion of fish like cod and mackerel. The robot's design allows for proportional scaling of its tail structure while keeping the motor and tendon system consistent, enabling operation in various aquatic environments. Field tests showed that ScaFi maintains fish-like swimming behavior across different sizes, though energy efficiency and stability vary with scale.
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Source excerpts and review record
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Original source quotation: “The scalable robot ScaFi. 2026 CREATE Lab EPFL. CC BY SA-4.0.”
Source E1
Original source quotation: “Studying different environments systematically ScaFi has a rigid front section and a flexible tail made of fiberglass rods.”
Source E2
Original source quotation: “The diameter of the rods forming the tail are the only part that must change with the size of the robot.”
Source E3
Original source quotation: “The underlying motor mechanism and crossed-tendon system stay the same.”
Source E4
Original source quotation: “They also deployed the robots in the field: the medium-sized one in a Swiss stream, the largest on Lake Geneva, the smallest in creeks only 15–30 centimeters deep.”
Source E5
Original source quotation: “During the stream test, the robot kept swimming even after a GPS dropout.”
Source E6
Original source quotation: “Energy efficiency proved harder to scale. The two smaller robots performed similarly, but the largest was consistently less efficient and needed a different, more powerful motor.”
Source E7
Original source quotation: “A similar tradeoff showed up in disturbance tests. The smallest robot was most agile but recovered slowest after being knocked off course, while the larger robots were less nimble but more stable.”
Source E8
Source：Robohub · robohub.org