CHINA: Electronic fish and dancing robots designed by college students go on show in Beijing.

Record ID: 401804

  • Title: CHINA: Electronic fish and dancing robots designed by college students go on show in Beijing.
  • Date: 15th December 2006
  • Summary: DESIGNER ZHANG JUNJIE INTRODUCING ELECTRONIC FISH TO PEOPLE PEOPLE WATCHING BY DESIGNER ZHANG HOLDING FISH IN HANDS ELECTRONIC FISH BEING PUT INTO WATER/FISH SWIMMING FISH/GIRL WATCHING MORE OF ELECTRONIC FISH SWIMMING ELECTRONIC FISH IN WATER WITH REAL FISH
  • Embargoed: 30th December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Science / Technology,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVABCMJPB787CUP32GMSR40T1TNY
  • Story Text: Hundreds of people gathered at the First China International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo on Monday (December 11) to see electronic fish and a thousand-hand-buddha dance performed by robots in the capital city.
    Zhang Junjie - a second-year graduate student from the Beijing Science and Technology University - was one of the designers participating in the exhibition, presenting an electronic fish he has created.
    The carp-like electronic fish has a limited range of motion and though it can only swim forward and backward at a snail-like speed of 0.5 meter per second, it runs on a standard 5 volt battery.
    The 20-cm-long fish is the proud creation of two Chinese college students, who recently walked away with the first prize at a local creativity competition for their efforts.
    After Zhang Junjie read an article about electronic fish in a foreign magazine two years ago, he decided to design one himself.
    "The electronic fish can be used in many areas, such as underwater probing, which may be too dangerous for humans to do sometimes. That is why we designed it," said Zhang Junjie.
    Zhang says the biggest challenge is to counter the effects of gravity and find suitable water-resistant materials for the fish skin.
    The two students made the fish themselves and at their own expense. Their next step is to make an upgrade which can move in three dimensions.
    Electronic fish are mainly used in underwater tracking missions worldwide.
    Students from the same school also presented their prize-winning masterpiece, five robots who perform synchronised dancing to music.
    The robots, controlled by a remote sensing system, put on a thousand-hand-buddha dance at the expo, a traditional Chinese dance which requires each dancer to move simultaneously.
    The robots are made by the robot designing group at the university. Since the first robot was designed, five additional brothers joined the robot family.
    Wang Tianzeng took over the unfinished design from his senior fellow students three years ago. And he is going to pass the robot-family-building mission onto the juniors after graduation.
    "I feel kind of abound with those robots. They are like my kids to me. Each time after we showed them to people, we always feel the excitement and passion. I hope we can make them bigger in size in the future and present them to people from China and abroad, so they can see what robots are capable of doing and appreciate the beauty of high technology," said Wang.
    There are nine students in his team and their next venture is to begin work on the first China-made robot with facial expressions.
    The First China International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo runs from December 10 to December 14.
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