This robot's gone fishing

Various aspects of Robofish which is an Esprit-funded project comprising partners from the UK, Denmark, Greece and Iceland, involved in removal of fish head are discussed. A vision system defines the position of the fish as they pass at a rate of one fish a second. Robofish has shown that, with careful design, a fish can be grasped reliably and with the necessary accuracy to achieve a yield improvements on deheading exceeding 1 per cent. The system structure indicates the way the necessary components of a skilled robotic system can be integrated to produce a system that can operate reliably in a hostile environment.