Mystery of batoid fishes

The batoids swim solely by the movement of their greatly expanded pectoral fins, which are flapped vertically in a way similar to the flight of birds. This kind of movement is called oscillatory locomotion and is considered extremely energy efficient. The manta ray is also considered the most evolutionarily advanced batoid fish. Also, manta rays may be over 6 meters wide and weigh over 1580 kg. These parameters make them comparable in size with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and thus eliminate the problems associated with scalability. For these three reasons, manta rays have caught the attention of researchers, just as humpback whales became the focus of research because of their extreme maneuverability. 

We are witnessing a true robotic revolution. Applications of industrial robots are rapidly increasing, but robots are also used for other purposes, including various military applications. Particularly well known are drones or flying robots, which are remotely controlled or can be entirely autonomous. Drones are widely and successfully flown not only on reconnaissance missions but are also used for targeting and for the actual combat 

Ability to operate in the littoral zone and open ocean 

With the exception of No. 7, these requirements are very similar to the requirements used by nature to develop the family of Batoid fishes, which live mostly in the littoral zone (close to the coast), as future AUVs will also operate in this zone. In this context, it is not surprising that the manta ray, the most evolutionarily advanced and sophisticated batoid, has been chosen by researchers as a source of bioinspiration to develop the next generation of bioinspired autonomous underwater vehicles or BAUVs. 

As a result of all these experimental and analytical studies, a good understanding of batoid fishes has been developed, as it is a requirement for the successful use of conceptual inspiration. Recently, this inspiration in the form of acquired natural knowledge has been used to develop two BAUVs, appropriately called MantaBots (Fish 2014). The first MantaBot was developed by a group of students at Princeton University and the second one at the University of Virginia. 

---