Till now we have watched many documentaries or programmes that showcased how some curious people dived deep into the sea with well-equipped life support systems or sometimes with less than required equipment. They endangered their lives by going deep into oceans and found some curious facts that helped us understand the marine life. At times they faced real life challenging situation during their exploration as they came face to face with the giant or attacking marine animals. And some have even sacrificed their lives for this risky work.

But we can have sigh of relief after learning about this new robot as it provides a novel solution to the risky problem. After all we just want to observe them and take some videos or photo-shoots. After developing prototypes for Human models the example for which is Sophia, the researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have made a soft, robot fish named as SoFi. The ‘robot fish’ can swim on its own and has features almost same as fish. This helps it explore the ocean without disturbing other sea creatures because if we were to develop a robot in some other design other than fish, the creatures in the sea would have found it to be strange and may keep a good distance from it and this would create a big hurdle for us to explore them.

The whole body of ‘SoFi’ is made of silicon rubber and flexible plastic. ‘SoFi’ can swim easily, handle currents under the sea surface, snap photos and videos going at depths of more than 50 feet (15 metres) for up to 40 minutes at a given single time.

All these results are based on test dives that were conducted in Fiji’s Rainbow Reef, and recorded in the journal Science Robotics.

A diver can control the ‘robo fish’ from a waterproofed Super Nintendo-like controller, which allows it to move in a straight line, turn, or dive up or down. The diver has the option to control SoFi’s speed, and allow it to make specific moves or turns.

It is somewhat different to other autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) as SoFi isn’t tethered to a boat or powered by a bulky propellor.

‘Sofi’ gets its power from a lithium polymer battery, which as same as that can be found in consumer smartphones. In order to swim, SoFi needs to make a side-to-side motion with the help of a motor that pushes water into two balloon-like chambers, making the fish bend and flex.

“We are excited about the possibility of being able to use a system like this to get closer to marine life than humans can get on their own,” the paper’s lead author Robert Katzschmann said in a statement.

SoFi is undergoing further improvements, with Katzschmann’s team trying to increase speed by improving its in-built pump system and also modifying the design of its outer body and tail. Very soon we shall have an improved version of ‘SoFi’.