
Robo-Fish
Winning idea, by Eleanor Mackintosh
Each entry was scored independently by our judges.
The winner this year was 'Robo-fish' by Eleanor Mackinstosh.
Eleanor's design took thoughtful inspiration from nature and had an important purpose - sampling and tracking microplastics in the water.
We took her idea and turned it into a fully 3D-printed fish
with a set of mesh lined gills, which Eleanor has affectionately named 'Gillbert'. The robot is now an ongoing piece of robotics research!
You can see Eleanor's idea and the robot it became in the gallery below. If you want more detail on the contest and the robot, you can read our research paper.
Winning idea, by Eleanor Mackintosh
The design is entirely 3D printed.
It also glows in the dark.
Four motors are used to control swiming.
It's been tested in the lab and in local lakes.
The biomimetic gills remove particles efficiently from the incoming water.
The robot design is available online for anyone to download.
As well as the winning design, there were many more great ideas, covering a broad range of topics, animal types and use cases. We were very impressed with the thought and care that went into many of the submitted designs. Some of the judge's favourites are below.
by Teju Sankuratri
by Elizabeth Ivanova
by Daniella Clifton
by Elizabeth Isaac
by 'The Robotineers'
by Sue Klefstad
by the Yak Collective
by Maier Fenster
by Iryna Putchenko
by Ayla Henrickson
by Emilia Deacon
by Aanya Khan
by Jake Allchorne
The next contest will be announced in spring 2023. Sign up below to be notified when the new contest opens.
The winning entry will be selected and built by a group of senior engineers and scientists with years of experience bringing robots to life.
You can take a look at the team below. Click any member to see some of their work.
Rob is a Lecturer at the University of Surrey.
Raphael is a Marie Curie Fellow at EPFL in Lausanne.
Sophie is a Professor at the Technical University of Munich.
Sina is a Reader at the Royal College of Art.
Ketao is a Lecturer at the Advanced Robotics Center at Queen Mary University.
Or watch the video below to see some of the bioinspired robots built by the contest team.