Have You Ever Seen a Fish-Driver?

By on April 1, 2018
Pin It

Yes, I know what you’re thinking about me: “ok, he completely went nuts!”. And this is exactly what I have thought about Alex Kent, the project’s maker, at first.

Alex Kent and friends have widened the goldfish’s horizons, by giving it wheels. Robocod is a project which uses the Pi to create the world’s first vehicle driven by a fish.

The fish tank’s movement is controlled by the fish, computer vision tracks its location and as it swims around, the Pi moves the tank in the corresponding direction.

“Alex K, negligent fishparent, says that the speed and direction of the build is determined by the position of the fish relative to the centre of the tank. The battery lasts for five hours, and by all accounts the fish is still alive. Things are a bit jerky in this prototype build.

Alex explains:

The jerking is actually caused by the Computer Vision algorithm losing track of the fish because of the reflection off of the lid, condensation on the lid, water ripples, etc.”

Before you look at more expensive solutions, Alex suggests to fix a polarising filter to the camera you’re using.

For further information you can click here or go to the Github page.

About Luca Ruggeri

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *