Polish scientists are working on a motor mechanism for the robot fish, designed to detect underwater activity by foreign fleets.

The aim is to use smart materials to make the artificial fish invisible in the water to scanning devices, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.

The Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, north-central Poland, has been commissioned to work on the project by a naval academy in the Baltic port of Gdynia.

“The problem is the propulsion mechanism of such a fish,” said Jacek Nowaczyk of the Nicolaus Copernicus University.

“We have launched an attempt to create a propulsion mechanism mimicking that occurring in living organisms, such as fish,” he added.