Robo-tuna reveals how foldable fins help the speedy fish manoeuvre

A tuna-shaped robot takes advantage of the real fish’s secret for speed and nimbleness: selectively folding or sticking out its fins, a feature that could improve aquatic robot designs.

Tuna are some of the ocean’s fastest swimmers, thanks in part to the way they retract or fold their fins to reduce drag. Zhonglu Lin at Xiamen University in China and his colleagues investigated how such fins could make robots more agile.

They…