--- title: Intermittent swimming promotes the energy efficiency of... description: Researchers from EPFL, Duke University, and Instituto Superior Tecnico built ZBot, a larval zebrafish-inspired swimming robot 200 times the size of the real... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/intermittent-swimming-promotes-the-energy-efficiency-of-fish-like-robot-movements-gsxan6unj twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Intermittent swimming promotes the energy efficiency of fish-like robot movements | daily.dev og:description: Researchers from EPFL, Duke University, and Instituto Superior Tecnico built ZBot, a larval zebrafish-inspired swimming robot 200 times the size of the real... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/intermittent-swimming-promotes-the-energy-efficiency-of-fish-like-robot-movements-gsxan6unj og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/GsXAn6UNj.png og:image:alt: Intermittent swimming promotes the energy efficiency of fish-like robot movements og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Intermittent swimming promotes the energy efficiency of fish-like robot movements **[Robohub](https://daily.dev/sources/robohub)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Researchers from EPFL, Duke University, and Instituto Superior Tecnico built ZBot, a larval zebrafish-inspired swimming robot 200 times the size of the real fish, to study why intermittent bout-and-glide swimming is more energy efficient than continuous tail-beating. Using a neurocomputational model built around Central Pattern Generators and bout-gate modules, the team replicated multiple zebrafish swimming gaits and tested performance across fluids of varying viscosity. They found intermittent swimming reduces energy consumption at all velocities but caps top speed at about 60% of continuous swimming, and propose a new 'actuator efficiency' hypothesis: bout-glide cycling keeps motors (or muscles) operating in their most efficient load range rather than the drag-reduction explanation alone. The findings suggest underwater robots could switch between energy-saving intermittent gaits for cruising and continuous gaits for high-speed maneuvers. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why is intermittent bout-and-glide swimming more energy efficient than continuous swimming for fish-like robots? Intermittent swimming keeps actuators operating in their most efficient load range rather than persistently underloaded, since both robotic servomotors and biological muscles follow an inverted U-shaped efficiency curve. Experiments on the zebrafish-inspired robot ZBot showed intermittent swimming reduces energy use at all velocities compared to continuous tail-beating, though top speed drops to about 60% of continuous swimming. _Developers building energy-aware control systems can find bioinspired engineering research like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Small, medium or large, a robotic fish maintains its swimming ability](https://daily.dev/posts/small-medium-or-large-a-robotic-fish-maintains-its-swimming-ability-dkw7jepea) · Robohub · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Powered by muscle cells, a paper-thin robot swims through watery maze](https://daily.dev/posts/powered-by-muscle-cells-a-paper-thin-robot-swims-through-watery-maze-hpo9t4vzw) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Underwater Robot Mimics Fish With New Fin Design](https://daily.dev/posts/underwater-robot-mimics-fish-with-new-fin-design-hxf7bkwgc) · IEEE Spectrum · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Simulated zebrafish and a vision-equipped robotic fish reveal how the body shapes brain circuits](https://daily.dev/posts/simulated-zebrafish-and-a-vision-equipped-robotic-fish-reveal-how-the-body-shapes-brain-circuits-3kba43x3z) · Robohub · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#robotics](https://daily.dev/tags/robotics) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/intermittent-swimming-promotes-the-energy-efficiency-of-fish-like-robot-movements-gsxan6unj) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Intermittent swimming promotes the energy efficiency of fish-like robot movements","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/intermittent-swimming-promotes-the-energy-efficiency-of-fish-like-robot-movements-gsxan6unj","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/intermittent-swimming-promotes-the-energy-efficiency-of-fish-like-robot-movements-gsxan6unj"},"datePublished":"2026-08-17T13:03:52.964Z","dateModified":"2026-08-17T13:05:03.144Z","description":"Researchers from EPFL, Duke University, and Instituto Superior Tecnico built ZBot, a larval zebrafish-inspired swimming robot 200 times the size of the real...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3c7bce2a1dda45073c84d6fcc6278cdc?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/3c7bce2a1dda45073c84d6fcc6278cdc?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Robohub","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Robohub","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/79911e4f3a514623a70a98793133f536","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/robohub"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/intermittent-swimming-promotes-the-energy-efficiency-of-fish-like-robot-movements-gsxan6unj","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"robotics","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Robohub","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/robohub"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Intermittent swimming promotes the energy efficiency of fish-like robot movements"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/intermittent-swimming-promotes-the-energy-efficiency-of-fish-like-robot-movements-gsxan6unj#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why is intermittent bout-and-glide swimming more energy efficient than continuous swimming for fish-like robots?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Intermittent swimming keeps actuators operating in their most efficient load range rather than persistently underloaded, since both robotic servomotors and biological muscles follow an inverted U-shaped efficiency curve. Experiments on the zebrafish-inspired robot ZBot showed intermittent swimming reduces energy use at all velocities compared to continuous tail-beating, though top speed drops to about 60% of continuous swimming. Developers building energy-aware control systems can find bioinspired engineering research like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```