RoboTuna

Their aim was to investigate the possibility of constructing a robotic submarine that could reproduce the way tunas swim and see if they could find a superior system of propulsion for the Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).[2][3][4] While the early results were successful the RoboTuna was not able to replicate the bursts of acceleration that real tuna were able to manage.Visualization techniques showed that the system had evolved so that the RoboTuna was taking advantage of vortices that it created.This technique not only helps to with normal swimming but explains the impressive standing start speeds of real tuna.[5] The team involved in the project included: Michael Triantafyllou, David Barrett who built the first RoboTuna (Charlie I) in 1995 for his PhD thesis, and David Beal and Michael Sachinis, who introduced several modifications including a cable-pulley system to produce RoboTuna II.
Robotuna on display at the MIT Museum .
MIT MuseumMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyAutonomous Underwater Vehiclesgenetic algorithmMichael Triantafyllou