Fishbots: Bio-Inspired Marine Robots Give Students a Hands-On Introduction to Fluid Mechanics

Simple biomimetic marine robots were used as teaching tools to introduce students to concepts in fluid mechanics and how they are applied to understanding swimming in fish and other marine animals. These robots, termed FishBots, were used in two educational situations. The first was a project for two undergraduate summer interns at MIT Sea Grant. This experience proved that such robots could be developed by students under the time constraints of a one month internship. Building on that success we used FishBots successfully in an undergraduate freshman seminar class at MIT. In one semester 29 students build 15 FishBots, all were tested in the water and 13 successfully swam. These educational experiences are described in this paper along with the design of several of the student-build FishBots. The paper concludes with future educational paths for the FishBot idea.