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.
It's interesting but without any details, it's hard to comment. Is there any research like this in any other part of the world? Australia and the US also have endangered coral reefs.
It will be interesting to see what details come out about these swarming robots. I can't imagine how they will be able to rebuild damaged coral in days. If they can, that's great news.
I also wish we'd been able to see what they look like. It's worth remembering that the by now famous U of PA's flying robot quadrotor swarm learned to build things https://www.grasp.upenn.edu/success_story/grasp_lab_drones_colbert_report as did a similar swarm in France http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=249645&image_number=2 Building things is what the coral-repairing swarm will do, so it's not hard to imaging that, assuming the robots stay waterproof, they'll be able to rebuild the reefs pretty quickly, especially with enough of them.
Fascinating, Ann. I take it they would rebuild by using broken pieces of coral -- or perhaps supporting coral that is beginning to break. This could be a big deal given that coral reefs are in bad shape all over the globe.
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.
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?
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.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
2 
