Fish locomotion and sensing: from biology to biorobotics

Fish are far better in surviving in the underwater environment than any currently developed underwater  vehicles. They swim, hold station, harvest energy, hide from predators, hunt for pray and school in very turbulent waters. This is possible because they sense the changes in their hydrodynamic environment and react to them  in an efficient way.
This lecture will describe the principles of fish locomotion and describes various underwater robots built using these principles. It also describes the working principles of a lateral line, the primary sensing organ of fish, and explores the opportunities to artificially mimic lateral line sensing. In the context of the European 7th Framework project FILOSE it describes an ongoing effort to understand and mimic fish sensing, locomotion and control.