Robo-fish — underwater robots that autonomously hunt down contamination in the ocean — are being test in Spain.. The robots were developed by the Shoal consortium, a European Commission-funded group from academia and business. “The idea is that we want to have real-time monitoring of pollution, so that if someone is dumping chemicals or something is leaking, we can get to it straight away, find out what is causing the problem and put a stop to it,” explains Luke Speller, a senior scientist at the research division of BMT Group, a technology consultancy. “At the moment, in harbors, they take samples about once a month,” says Mr Speller. “And in that time, a ship could come into the harbor, leak some chemicals somewhere, then it’s gone, all the way up the coastline.” (via Robotic fish to patrol for pollution in harbors | KurzweilAI)