When exposed to the laser, the bionic fish begins to work to collect microplastics from the surface of the water.
Chinese scientists from Sichuan University have presented their invention - a robot fish, whose main purpose is to clean the water surface from microplastics. The conclusions of the scientific research have been published in the journal ACS Publications.
The authors of the invention report that the bionic fish, sized 13 millimeters, is flexible and has a multilayered graphene-based material, which resembles layers of mother-of-pearl on the surface of seashells.
When exposed to a laser beam, the robot "comes to life" and starts collecting microplastics by attracting them to its surface. The speed of the robot fish movement is up to 30 millimeters per second.
There are earlier variants of creating robots designed for cleaning water bodies from debris. However, they consisted of silicone or hydrogel and were very vulnerable to mechanical damage.