Active Electrolocation for Underwater Target Localization

Active Electrolocation for Underwater Target Localization

Solberg, James R., Kevin M. Lynch, and Malcolm A. MacIver.
The International Journal of Robotics Research 27, no. 5 (2008): 529-548.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0278364908090538

“The ability of some aquatic animals to sense electric fields was discovered in the late 1950s and is therefore one of the most recently discovered biological sensing mechanisms. Many fish such as sharks, sturgeons and catfish and some other animals such as the platypus are able to sense weak bioelectric fields emitted by aquatic prey and use these fields to locate prey. This ability is termed ‘passive electrolocation’. Only two groups of freshwater fishes, one in South America and one in Africa, both emit and sense an electric field, similar to active sensing systems such as radar and sonar. They are therefore referred to as active electrolocators.”

— James Solberg et al.