MIT’s robotic fish developed to study efficient underwater movement was called RoboTuna.
RoboTuna was created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1990s by a team led by Michael Triantafyllou. Its design was inspired by the body and tail motion of tuna, which can propel fish efficiently through water.
Unlike a conventional propeller-driven underwater vehicle, RoboTuna used an articulated body and oscillating tail. Researchers built the machine to investigate how biological swimming could inform the design of underwater vehicles and marine propulsion systems.
The project is often confused with autonomous underwater vehicles such as Bluefin or REMUS, which are vehicle families rather than this fish-inspired experimental robot. RoboTuna was primarily a research platform, not a commercial ocean robot or a robotic animal intended for general consumer use.