{"id":20913,"date":"2026-08-29T03:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=20913"},"modified":"2026-08-29T03:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T03:46:09","slug":"one-blueprint-fivefold-growth-a-length-scalable-fish-robot-built-for-creeks-and-lakes-alike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=20913","title":{"rendered":"One Blueprint, Fivefold Growth, a Length-Scalable Fish Robot Built for Creeks and Lakes Alike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/28124618\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu.jpg\" alt=\"Length-Scalable Fish Robot ScaFi NYU\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\"\/><br \/>Most fish-inspired robots arrive locked to one length and one job. Scale them up for a lake or down for a creek and the whole machine usually has to be designed again from scratch. Engineers working between NYU Tandon and EPFL have shown a way around that limit with ScaFi, a compliant robot modeled on the tail-heavy swimming of fish such as cod and mackerel. Those species keep most of their body bend toward the rear, a style that works across a wide range of real animal sizes. ScaFi copies the same idea with a rigid motor-driven front and a flexible tail of fiberglass rods wrapped in red fabric. A single motor pulls two tendons that cross near the tail tip, forcing the familiar S-curve that pushes water backward.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-255846\"\/><br \/><iframe title=\"ScaFi, a robotic fish\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vweN7knkZK4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>Only the rod diameter needs to change as the robot grows. A scaling rule based on beam theory and hydrodynamics determines how thick the rods become. This ensures that the tail bends around the same amount regardless of whether the robot is small, medium, or huge. The engine, tendon layout, and overall design remain the same. They developed three prototypes of the robot: 0.6 meters long \/ 1.5 kilos, 1.1 meters long \/ 2.4 kilograms, and 2.9 meters long \/ 11 kilograms, representing a fivefold increase in length. Once scientists adjusted the swimming motion for the body size, the gait was quite consistent among all three. Particle-image testing on the smallest robot revealed that it produced swirling wakes that resembled the reverse von K\u00e1rm\u00e1n streets created by real fish.<\/p>\n<div class=\"aawp\">\n<div class=\"aawp-product aawp-product--horizontal\" data-aawp-product-asin=\"B0CYM1LLZQ\" data-aawp-product-id=\"254829\" data-aawp-tracking-id=\"tec02e-20\" data-aawp-product-title=\"LEGO Ideas Jaws Set - Diorama Kit for Fans of the Classic Movie - Shark Toy - Movie Memorabilia Gift for Adults - Includes Orca Boat and Chief Brody Hooper and Quint Minifigures - 21350\">\n<div class=\"aawp-product__thumb\">\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aawp-product__image\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/41XpFMUiBCL._SL160_.jpg\" alt=\"LEGO Ideas Jaws Set - Diorama Kit for Fans of the Classic Movie - Shark Toy - Movie Memorabilia Gift for...\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"aawp-product__content\">\n<p>            LEGO Ideas Jaws Set &#8211; Diorama Kit for Fans of the Classic Movie &#8211; Shark Toy &#8211; Movie Memorabilia Gift for&#8230;        <\/p>\n<div class=\"aawp-product__description\">\n<ul>\n<li>SHARK TOY FOR JAWS FANS \u2013 Relive suspenseful scenes from the classic movie with this authentically detailed LEGO Ideas Jaws and Orca boat diorama&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>3 LEGO MINIFIGURES \u2013 Includes fan favorite characters: Chief Martin Brody, Matt Hooper and Sam Quint minifigures as well as accessories like a&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>LEGO BOAT AND SEAWATER BASE \u2013 The Orca boat model features a cabin with a roof that lifts off to view the interior details, an adjustable boom and&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nOut in the field, each size of robot was deployed where it belonged. The smallest one could swim across creeks as shallow as 15 to 30 centimeters and past weeds and banks without getting snagged like a spinning propeller. Even when the GPS signal failed, the medium robot remained on course in a Swiss stream. Even in the face of currents and waves, the largest robot performed admirably on Lake Geneva. Nana Obayashi, who worked on the project as a doctorate researcher at EPFL and is now an assistant professor at NYU Tandon, put it simply: if you want to watch a creek and then a lake, you need two different robots, each created from scratch. Environments don\u2019t come in one size, so why should the tools used to study them?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/28124613\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu-1.jpg\" alt=\"Length-Scalable Fish Robot ScaFi NYU\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>Energy consumption did not scale as well as the movement itself. The two smaller robots required almost the same amount of power to complete their tasks. The 2.9-meter version required a more powerful engine and still consumed more energy, most likely because drag and inertia increased more faster than the scientists anticipated. If you knocked the smallest robot over, it was slow to recover while being the most agile; the larger ones were steadier but less nimble. These trade-offs correspond to what biologists find in real fish of varying lengths. So researchers now have a single platform, ScaFi, that can be created to the exact size of the water they\u2019re researching, eliminating the need to start over every time the environment changes. The similar rod-thickness criteria they adopted could be useful for other flexible robots that must operate in a variety of sizes.<br \/><span>[Source]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> One Blueprint, Fivefold Growth, a Length-Scalable Fish Robot Built for Creeks and Lakes Alike<br \/>\n<br \/>#Blueprint #Fivefold #Growth #LengthScalable #Fish #Robot #Built #Creeks #Lakes #Alike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most fish-inspired robots arrive locked to one length and one job. Scale them up for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13382,3146,380,13381,266,13379,2894,6967,13380,305],"class_list":["post-20913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-alike","tag-blueprint","tag-built","tag-creeks","tag-fish","tag-fivefold","tag-growth","tag-lakes","tag-lengthscalable","tag-robot"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu.jpg",1280,853,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu.jpg",1280,853,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu.jpg",1280,853,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu-1024x682.jpg",1024,682,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/length-scalabe-fish-robot-scafi-nyu-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/news678.top\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Tech<\/a>","tag_info":"Tech","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}