Tunabot: The First Robotic Tuna to Mimic Tuna's Swimming Style

Tuna are highly efficient swimmers, migrating thousands of miles across the Pacific from California to Japan. They are also among the fastest fish in the water reaching speeds of nearly 50 miles per hour. George Lauder has been trying to understand how they are capable of both by developing robots to model tuna's flexible underwater gait.

Working with a team of researchers from the University of Virginia, Lauder developed Tunabot, the first robotic tuna that accurately mimics both their highly efficient swimming style and high speed. Tunabot is described in a paper published in Science Robotics. And was featured - including video of Tunabot! - in The Harvard Gazette.

Image: George Lauder holds Tunabot. Photo by Jon Chase, The Harvard Gazette