By Joe Cermele

Coming to theaters this Christmas: "RoboFish." Hooked off the coast of North Carolina and released half-dead, this is the story of how one tuna became the ultimate cyborg killing machine programmed with only one mission...destroy every sportfishing boat in the ocean. 

If that were a real movie trailer, I'd be buying a ticket. Actually, the real story of this robotic bluefin isn't too far off. Dubbed BioSwimmer, the unmanned underwater vehicle is the Department of Homeland Security's latest toy. And according to this story on the website of the Daily Mail, it will "safeguard the coastline of America and bring justice to the deep." That's a tag line Stan Lee would be proud of. 

BioSwimmer was modeled after a tuna because their body shape allows them to maneuver far more gracefully in rough water conditions than many other species. If you've ever caught a tuna or seen them chasing bait, you know their speed and agility is poetry in motion. So does BioSwimmer have lasers and a torpedo tube? Not yet. While a school of these tuna might be working for the military down the road, right now the one-and-only prototype is being used for inspecting oil tanker hulls from underwater. Homeland Security plans to use BioSwimmers to patrol harbors and around piers in the near future. 

Take a look at the video clip below and tell me the swimming action of this robot isn't amazing. Have a great weekend.

Comments (11)

from jdwood wrote 28 weeks 2 days ago

Thats quite a piece of engineering, it moves really well, if only they could get something like this to follow Bluefin's around as part of a pod.

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from natureonthefly wrote 28 weeks 2 days ago

man first drones in the sky and now robotuna in the ocean!...

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from timromano wrote 28 weeks 2 days ago

i see serious hard-bait implications... ;)

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from Austin Kuipers wrote 28 weeks 2 days ago

I've always thought it would be neat to tag larger fish (or whales, perhaps) both for conservation/research reasons, but also with some sort of camera triggered by significant ferrite material nearby. Save endangered species and learn Chinese/Russia/etc Boomer routes for military intelligence at the same time.

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from postmodern_barbarian wrote 28 weeks 1 day ago

Remarkably life-like. Biologically-inspired propulsion for untethered, unmanned underwater vehicles has been an active area of research for quite a few years now. The math is not for the faint-hearted. But it's a fascinating area.

For Austin Kiupers: Large fish and whales are generally going to follow their food sources, which is *not* the parts of the ocean where I'd expect boomers to hide. Their job is literally to get lost for the time they're on patrol. One of the last things the skipper of *any* boomer wants is to be detected by *anybody*. That said, undersea surveillance is something that an autonomous underwater vehicle could do quite well. Offhand, I woudn't be surprised if robotuna's propulsion is rather quiet, which would be a real plus...

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from Marine ATC wrote 28 weeks 13 hours ago

That's pretty cool! I wonder if it will be commerically available to fishermen? Of course real men wouldn't use it...

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from Marine ATC wrote 28 weeks 13 hours ago

...for fishing, that is.

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from missedit wrote 28 weeks 7 hours ago

That's smart

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from Bioguy01 wrote 28 weeks 3 hours ago

Looks like very expensive shark bait. I wonder if the engineers thought of that before putting this together.

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from cb bob wrote 27 weeks 5 days ago

Great idea. Patrol harbors, and find out what countries are fishing too close to our coast.

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from timromano wrote 28 weeks 2 days ago

i see serious hard-bait implications... ;)

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from jdwood wrote 28 weeks 2 days ago

Thats quite a piece of engineering, it moves really well, if only they could get something like this to follow Bluefin's around as part of a pod.

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from natureonthefly wrote 28 weeks 2 days ago

man first drones in the sky and now robotuna in the ocean!...

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from Austin Kuipers wrote 28 weeks 2 days ago

I've always thought it would be neat to tag larger fish (or whales, perhaps) both for conservation/research reasons, but also with some sort of camera triggered by significant ferrite material nearby. Save endangered species and learn Chinese/Russia/etc Boomer routes for military intelligence at the same time.

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from postmodern_barbarian wrote 28 weeks 1 day ago

Remarkably life-like. Biologically-inspired propulsion for untethered, unmanned underwater vehicles has been an active area of research for quite a few years now. The math is not for the faint-hearted. But it's a fascinating area.

For Austin Kiupers: Large fish and whales are generally going to follow their food sources, which is *not* the parts of the ocean where I'd expect boomers to hide. Their job is literally to get lost for the time they're on patrol. One of the last things the skipper of *any* boomer wants is to be detected by *anybody*. That said, undersea surveillance is something that an autonomous underwater vehicle could do quite well. Offhand, I woudn't be surprised if robotuna's propulsion is rather quiet, which would be a real plus...

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from Marine ATC wrote 28 weeks 13 hours ago

That's pretty cool! I wonder if it will be commerically available to fishermen? Of course real men wouldn't use it...

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from Marine ATC wrote 28 weeks 13 hours ago

...for fishing, that is.

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from missedit wrote 28 weeks 7 hours ago

That's smart

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from Bioguy01 wrote 28 weeks 3 hours ago

Looks like very expensive shark bait. I wonder if the engineers thought of that before putting this together.

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from cb bob wrote 27 weeks 5 days ago

Great idea. Patrol harbors, and find out what countries are fishing too close to our coast.

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