According to the researchers, the ocean is one of the least explored places on our planet. At the same time, watching underwater inhabitants is not so easy. Most fish and other inhabitants of the sea are fast, timid and secretive. Large enough robots are now used for observation, but, according to the publication Science Robotics, researchers from Peking University found a more elegant solution: they developed a robot that attaches to a marine animal, travels with it and collects the necessary data.

The head of the group of scientists Li Wen especially stresses that such "sea spies" will not cause harm to marine animals and the environment. Like many other inventions, it was inspired by nature itself, namely the life activity of fish-sticking. The main advantage of robots of this type is that they do not have to track down the necessary objects for observation for a long time. This will need to be done only once.

The robot itself looks like this: it is a soft "pillow", similar in shape to the fin fish. On this "pillow" is placed more than a thousand tiny spikes of carbon fiber, attached to special plates, regulating their position. If you were frightened by the word "thorns" - do not worry: this mechanism almost completely mimics the natural version of fish-sticking and does not harm the "bearer". The device "spy-pripaly" maintains weight exceeding its own 340 times. Scientists say that robots of this type can be very useful: they will track the movements of marine inhabitants, build maps, mark the habitats of rare inhabitants of the sea and even discover new species of animals.