The little mermaid’s dream come true: a fish that can swim while traveling on land. A group of friends built a robotic fish tank for Build18 at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This tank allows fish to become the master of their own destiny. The direction and speed of the robot are determined by the position of the fish relative to the center of its tank. Therefore, as the fish swims around, so does its tank.
Build 18 is a freestyle tinkering festival held every year in January by CMU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. About 400 students form teams to accomplish an electronics project and are given a week to complete the task. Build 18’s mission is to offer students with a risk-free environment to tackle personal engineering challenges, with no limiting factors to creation.
Watch the fish in action, as it roams around the court in his robotic fish tank, in the video below.
Fish aren’t the only non-humans that can drive either. In a behavioral science experiment, scientists from the University of Richmond have successfully taught 17 different rats how to drive cars to engage with their world!
