Scotland's coral reefs, which are currently healthy but threatened, may soon get some help from groups of swarming underwater robots being developed by a Scottish university research team.
Swarming robots are a growing area of research we've previously reported on. They're often in the form of flying machines, such as the ScanEagle autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Boeing is developing with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
The Scottish "coralbots" are being developed by a team of researchers at Heriot-Watt University's Edinburgh campus, led by Dr. Lea-Anne Henry from the school of life sciences. Henry is collaborating with professor David Corne from the university's school of mathematical and computer science, as well as Dr. Neil Robertson and professor David Lane from the school of engineering and physical sciences.
Coralbots will be trained to distinguish coral fragments from other objects, such as sponges and other sea creatures, as well as rocks and trash. (Source: Murray Roberts/Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh)
The swarming intelligent underwater robots may prove to be a solution for helping to rebuild coral reefs around Scotland and elsewhere on the planet that have been damaged by growing ocean acidity. Coral reefs in the deep waters west of Scotland, which are similar to coral reefs in the tropics, are also being threatened by bottom-fishing, or trawling. Although the reefs can sometimes survive damage and regrow, the process can take decades, or even centuries.
Like all coral reefs, the Scottish ones are home to fish, sharks, and thousands of other sea creatures. The researchers say that swarms of many small, autonomous robots, operating according to a set of simple rules, could be deployed in areas affected by trawling, or immediately after a hurricane. They could potentially rebuild an area of damaged reef in a few days instead of many years.
Although no details were available about the robots' mechanics or other characteristics, the researchers did say that they will be trained, presumably using object recognition software, to distinguish coral fragments from other objects, such as sponges and other sea creatures, as well as rocks and trash. The coralbot research is supported by Heriot-Watt Crucible Funding.
Earlier this year, the university's Murray Roberts, professor of marine biology, led the international Changing Oceans expedition to study deep-water and shallow-water coral reefs around Scotland, the UK, and other areas. The team used remote-controlled underwater vehicles to film ecosystems in the reefs, and collected samples and other data.
You're welcome, Jack. From what I recall, autonomy is one of the main points in swarming robots. You might want to check out some of the related posts at the end of this story for more info.
Interesting site, Ann. Thanks for posting. Has it been your experience, then, in researching these various articles on swarming that the individual vehicles / robots are fully autonomous?
Jack, swarming behavior is biological and implies certain types of communication among the swarming elements. You can find more info about it here:
http://www.swarms.org/
Ann - Have you seen a formal definition yet of "swarming"? There seems to be a number of companies working on this, but where is the line currently being drawin betweens "swarms" and coordinated operation? Is it the fact that the individual members of a swarm have no independant control and the mission is simply given to the "whole" with some type of coordinated artificial intelligence giving commands to the individual?
Yes it is about time we help rather than just destroy, Cadman-LT. I remember seeing the plane that was deliberately crashed for the movie Catch 22 off the shore in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. It wasn't intended to become a haven for small fish, but it did.
TJ, just found your WALL-E Finds Nemo comment--thanks for the chuckles. I can visualize it all too well. Wonder if these little bots look anything like WALL-E?
Chuck and others, the robots would piece together/transplant damaged bits of healthy and living, not dead, coral and re-cement them to the larger structure to help the entire structure regrow. Here's a description from a different project attempting to do something similar via human hands in shallow-, not deep-water, coral reefs: http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/coral-transplant/
The idea is to do this before a certain threshold is passed and massive, irreversible damage occurs. In Scottish case, it's probably better described as maintenance than repair.
What an interesting idea, Akwaman. I take it that we've learned this through accidents. Have there been cases where decommissioned ships were strategically placed to provide a home for sea life?
This is a cool concept and some neat technology, but it does not restore the animals that actually build the reefs other than to give them substrate and structure. This process will not really restore a coral reef, except to create man-made structure to support sea life, and there is already ways to do this cheaper. Yes, they (coral) need substrate to attach to and sea life needs reefs for protection, but if you want some lifeless structure to act as a nursery (much needed in the oceans), then I suggest sinking more de-commissioned ships to give some structure for sea life, certainly a lot cheaper, and proven to attract sea life and create new, large coral reefs relatively fast, and create eco-tourist traffic that boosts local economies. Sunken ships are better, because trawlers will stay away from a sunken ship, allowing the sea life to flourish (only to save their precious equipment). They certainly don't care about coral reefs, and as these robots build up the lifeless reefs, the bottom draggers will come along and continue to destroy them. Additional concern: I would be curious to know how sensitive to any existing coral that are attached to the materials and structure they are creating.
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