Tracking Sharks With Robots

Scientists have been tracking sharks using robots for years, but a new design can do so while simultaneously tracking the animal. Biologists at Mote Marine Laboratory and engineers at Harvey Mudd College developed the system using off-the-shelf parts.

It has serious gripping power capable of enduring pull-off forces of 340 times its own weight. It can also sense changes in objects and adjust its direction accordingly.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)

Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) are robots that can be programmed to operate dependent on the design they can drift or travel through the ocean without real-time human control. They come with sensors that can record water parameters, search and map features of the ocean's geology and habitats and more.

They are typically controlled from a surface ship via Wi-Fi or an acoustic link to transmit data back to the operator. AUVS can be used to collect temporal or spatial data, and are able to be used as a large team to cover a larger area faster than a single vehicle.

Similar to their counterparts on land, AUVs can navigate using GPS and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to determine where they are in the world and how far they have been from where they started. This information, combined with sensors in the environment that transmit information to the computer systems onboard, allows AUVs follow their route without losing sight of their destination.

Once a research project is completed after which the AUV will sink to the surface and then be recovered on the research vessel it was launched from. A resident AUV may also remain submerged for a long time and perform regular inspections pre-programmed. In either case the AUV will periodically surface to communicate its location using a GPS signal or acoustic beacon, which are then transmitted to the surface ship.

Some AUVs communicate with their operator constantly via a satellite link on the research ship. Scientists are able to continue their research on the ship while the AUV collects data under water. Other AUVs communicate with their owners at specific times. For instance, when they need to replenish their sensors or verify their status.

In addition to providing oceanographic data, AUVs can also be utilized to search for underwater resources, such as minerals and natural gas, according to Free Think. They can also be used to respond to environmental catastrophes like tsunamis or oil spills. They can also be used to monitor subsurface volcanic activity and monitor the conditions of marine life such as coral reefs and whale populations.

Curious Robots

Unlike traditional undersea robots, which are preprogrammed to look for only one characteristic of the ocean floor The curious robots are built to be able to see and adjust to changing conditions. This is crucial because the underwater environment can be unpredictable. If the water suddenly gets hot it could alter the behavior of marine animals, or even result in an oil spill. Robots that are curious are designed to swiftly and efficiently detect these changes.

Researchers are working on a new Robotic shark platform which uses reinforcement learning to train robots to be curious. The robot, which looks like the image of a child wearing a yellow jacket with a green thumb, can be taught to recognize patterns which could be a sign of an interesting discovery. It can also learn to make decisions about what it should do next, depending on the results of its previous actions. The results of this research could be used to develop an intelligent shark robot vacuum capable of self-learning and adapting to changing environments.

Other researchers are using robotics with a curious nature to explore parts of the ocean that are too risky for human divers. For example, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has a curious robot called WARP-AUV which is used to find and research shipwrecks. The robot is able to identify creatures living in reefs, and can discern semi-transparent jellyfish and fish from their dim backgrounds.

This is a feat of sheer brilliance considering that it takes a long time to train a human being to perform this task. The brain of the WARP-AUV has been trained recognize familiar species after a lot of images have been fed to it. The WARP-AUV is a marine forensics device which can also send live images of sea life and underwater scenery to supervisors on the surface.

Other teams are working on robots that can learn with the same curiosity humans do. A team at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen school of Computer Science & Engineering, for example, is exploring how to teach robots curiosity about their surroundings. This group is part of a three-year initiative by Honda Research Institute USA to develop machines that are curious.

Remote Missions

There are many uncertainties that could lead to an unplanned mission failure. Scientists aren't sure what time the mission will take, how well certain parts of the spacecraft will function and if any other forces or objects will disrupt the spacecraft's operation. The Remote Agent software is intended to ease these doubts by doing many of the complicated tasks that ground personnel would carry out in the event that they were on DS1 during the mission.

The Remote Agent software system consists of a planner/scheduler and an executive. It also includes models-based reasoning algorithms. The planner/scheduler produces a set of time-based and events-based activities that are referred to as tokens which are then sent to the executive. The executive decides on how to make these tokens a sequence of commands to be directly transmitted to the spacecraft.

During the test, a DS1 crewmember is on hand to assist in resolving any issues that might arise outside the scope of the test. All regional bureaus should follow Department requirements for records management and maintain all documents used in conjunction with establishing the remote mission.

SharkCam by REMUS

Sharks are elusive creatures, and researchers know almost nothing about their activities beneath the ocean's surface. Scientists are piercing the blue barrier by using an autonomous underwater vehicle known as REMUS SharkCam. The results are both amazing and frightening.

The SharkCam Team A group of scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution took the SharkCam the torpedo-shaped camera and to Guadalupe Island to track and film white great sharks in their habitat. The 13 hours of video footage, as well as images from acoustic tag tags attached to sharks, reveal much about the underwater behavior of these predators.

The REMUS SharkCam built in Pocasset, MA by Hydroid it is designed to track the position of a animal that is tagged without disrupting its behavior or alarming it. It employs an Omnidirectional ultra-short baseline navigation system to determine the range, bearing and depth of the robotic shark, then closes in at a predetermined distance and location (left, right above or below) to capture it swimming and interacting with its environment. It is able to communicate with scientists at the surface at intervals of 20 seconds and respond to commands to alter relative speed and depth, as well as the standoff distance.

When state shark bagless robot vacuum scientist Greg Skomal, WHOI engineer Amy Kukulya, Pelagios-Kakunja shark robot vacuum mop researcher Edgar MauricioHoyos-Padilla of Mexico's Marine Conservation Society and REMUS SharkCam software creator Roger Stokey first envisioned tracking and filming great whites using the self-propelled torpedo that they named REMUS SharkCam They were concerned that it could disturb the sharks' movements, and possibly make them flee the area they were studying. Skomal together with his colleagues, wrote in a recent article published in the Journal of Fish Biology that the SharkCam survived despite nine bumps and bites from great whites that weighed tens of thousands of pounds over the course of a week of study near the coast of Guadalupe.

Researchers interpreted the interactions of sharks and the REMUS SharkCam (which had been tracking four sharks that were tagged) as predatory behavior. Researchers recorded 30 shark robotic vacuum cleaner interactions which included simple bumps and nine bites with a ferocious force.