10/07/18 14:29:27
和訳おねがいしますm(..)m
Fish have been swimming in the seas of our planet for hundreds of millions of years,so it's no
rurprise that they're really effciant at it.Engineers know that there's no point in re-inventing the
wheel,so they've started copying the supremely efficient designs of nature.That's how come we
have a ‘tuna' called Charlie ― the first robofish ― swimming in a tank at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
There are many good reasons why scientists there are trying to copy fish.Your average fish can
do a U-turn without slowing down,whereas a ship has to slow down by over 50 percent to reverse
its direction.And fish can do their complete U-turn in a very tight curve,with a radius only about
one-fifth the length of their bodies,while ships need to have a curve ten times larger.A very
maneuverable ship could avoid many accidents.
Like fish,dolphins are remarkable ocean-going creatures.They can produce about 4 horsepower
and can tiavel at 80 kilometers per hour―but if we want a boat to travel at that speed,we have to
give it a 70 horsepower engine!Each year,billions of tons of goods are moved across the oceans by
large ship―if we could increase their efficiency,it would mean an enormous saving in fuel costs.
And of course,there are the military applications.Propellers are noisy,and the Navy would like
quiet ships.
These reasons-maneuverability,efficiency and low noise-are just a few ofthe reasons why
Charlie the Robofish was invented.