Some 400 kilometers from the nearest sea, engineering students at ETH Zurich in Switzerland are hard at work on cutting edge robots that can change the way oceans of the world are studied.
Eve, the robotic fish, swings her silicone tail from side to side, powered by pumps hidden inside, as she glides smoothly through the cold waters of Lake Zurich, where she is being tested by Surf-eDNA. This group of students has spent the last two years building a school of soft robotic fish, of which Eve is the latest.
“By making Eve look like a fish, we are able to be minimally invasive in the ecosystem we are researching,” master’s student Dennis Baumann told CNN. According to him, the biomimetic design should prevent other fish or marine life from being frightened by its presence. “We can mix and interact with the ecosystem,” he added.
Eve’s ability to camouflage herself as a fish isn’t her only use. The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is also equipped with a camera for underwater filming and sonar, which, when combined with an algorithm, allows it to avoid obstacles.
The AUV also has a filter to collect DNA from the environment, known as “eDNA,” while it swims. The collected particles can be sent to a laboratory for sequencing in order to determine which species inhabit the body of water.
“All animals that are in the environment release their DNA, so there are genes floating around that we can find,” Martina Lüthi, postdoctoral fellow at ETH Zurich, told CNN.
The students hope Eve can provide scientists with a more detailed picture of the oceans and their inhabitants. Despite covering more than 70% of our planet, much of what lies beneath the surface still remains a mystery.
Tools such as AUVs and remotely operated vehicles are increasingly being used to explore the ocean and learn more about underwater habitats. California-founded startup Aquaai, for example, has developed drones that resemble clownfish and can collect information such as oxygen levels, salinity and pH in waterways. Last year, a rover captured images of the fish filmed at the deepest depth ever recorded, at 8,300 meters.
The use of eDNA to monitor biodiversity is growing, but collection can still be rudimentary — some scientists still collect it by scooping water from a glass while leaning over the side of a boat.
More advanced tools that can study environments in greater detail could be vital to better protecting Earth’s oceans at a time when ocean habitats face unprecedented threats such as climate change, overfishing and other human activities.
“We want to build a reliable tool for biologists,” Baumann said, adding that he hopes that one day they can expand their technology so that it is accessible to any scientist who wants to use it. “Maybe we can prevent species from becoming endangered or becoming extinct.”
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