According to Reuters, the tiny fish-like robot is soft to the touch, measures 1.3 centimeters and are capable of "feeding" off microplastics in shallow waters.

Wang Yuyan, one of the scientists who helped with developing the innovative robot, says that the team is looking forward to making the robot work in deeper waters, while analyzing water pollution for real-time data.

"We developed such a lightweight miniaturized robot. It can be used in many ways, for example in biomedical or hazardous operations, such a small robot that can be localized to a part of your body to help you eliminate some disease", she mentioned.

The robot can be controlled remotely in order to avoid it crashing into fish or marine surroundings.

The team who developed it says that the device is edible, so if larger fish eat it by accident, it will be digested without issues, since it is made of polyurethane, which is biocompatible, according to Wang.

Other features of the fish-like robot include the fact that it is able to recover itself from some forms of damage and it can also swim faster than any robot at 2.76 body-lengths per second.

"We are mostly working on collection (of microplastics). It is like a sampling robot and it can be used repeatedly," Wang concluded.