Podcast with Huosheng Hu on robotic fish and underwater robotics
How collaboration arrises and why it fails · Prof. Dr. Paul F.M.J. Verschure
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Show Notes
Can a robotic fish patrol harbors for pollution while swimming so quietly it never disturbs the marine life it protects? Huosheng Hu describes building fish robots that evolved from aquarium exhibits to autonomous ocean sentinels, alongside brain-controlled wheelchairs for people who cannot move.
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Hu traces his journey from industrial automation to biomimetic underwater robots, sparked when an aquarium needed robotic replicas of fish species that could not legally be displayed. His 60-centimeter robotic fish uses four to five discrete motor segments to replicate the S-wave swimming motion captured from real fish via camera analysis. The design includes a buoyancy system mimicking a fish bladder, a center-of-gravity shifting mechanism for depth changes, and sensors ranging from gyroscopes and accelerometers to obstacle-detecting infrared and flow-measuring antennae. An EU-funded project now deploys these robots to monitor ship oil leaks and pollution in ports up to 30 meters deep, using an underwater ultrasonic positioning system analogous to GPS.
The advantages over conventional submarine-style robots are significant: fish-like propulsion disturbs neither the environment nor pollution plumes, offers greater maneuverability in narrow passages, and theoretically exceeds the 60% efficiency ceiling of propeller-driven vessels. Safety features ensure that if the underwater positioning system fails, the fish surfaces to acquire satellite GPS and navigate home autonomously.
Hu's parallel research on assistive robotics tackles mobility for people with severe disabilities. His brain-computer interface records EEG signals from the motor cortex as users imagine hand or leg movements, training neural networks to translate these patterns into wheelchair commands. Current systems achieve roughly 70% accuracy with healthy subjects after several hours of training, with online learning algorithms adapting to fluctuations in mental state. The wheelchair's own laser scanners and ultrasound sensors provide a safety layer that overrides human commands when obstacles are detected, ensuring safe operation even if the user falls asleep or sends erroneous signals.