Dr. Maurizio Porfiri, Assistant Professor, at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University is getting major funding to research schooling fish. He has made biologically inspired robot fish that he has proven effect the group's behavior. Not in running away from the robot fish, but he can actually get the fish to follow the robot's lead. He has discovered that through mimicry of the swimming patterns of the school, the robot fish is able to join the group and in some cases lead. Currently the robot can only swim on one plane. However, he is hard at work on making a bot that can also rise and sink. Porfiri hopes that this bot could help fish escape disaster areas, such as the oil spill in the gulf. Porfiri elaborates, "Studies of schools of fish, flocks of birds and herds of animals have inspired robotic systems designed for our own applications. But I wanted to see if I could close the gap, bringing some of those benefits back into the natural world."
He has earned the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award and a grant to continue his research. See more about it, including videos (with good sounds tracks), at his site after this link.
Eavesdropper
ps. This robot fish makes for a good animated film plot.
Pic via Polytechnic Institute of New York University