Tracking Sharks With Robots

Scientists have been tracking sharks using robots for years. But a new approach allows them to do this while tracking the animal. Biologists at Mote Marine Laboratory and engineers at Harvey Mudd College developed the system using off-the-shelf parts.

It can resist a pull-off force of 340 times greater than its own weight. It also detects changes in objects and adjust its path to accommodate them.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) are programmable robotic machines that, according to the design, can drift or drive through the ocean without any human supervision in real-time. They are equipped with a range of sensors to record the water's parameters and identify ocean geological features, seafloor communities and habitats, and more.

They are typically controlled from a surface ship by Wi-Fi or an acoustic link to transmit data back to the operator. They are utilized to collect any kind of temporal or spatial data and can be used in large teams to cover more ground than can be accomplished using one vehicle.

AUVs are able to use GPS and the Global Navigation Satellite System to determine their position around the globe and how far they've traveled from their starting location. This information about their location, along with sensors for the environment that transmit data to computer systems onboard, allows AUVs to follow a pre-planned trajectory without losing track of their goal.

When a research mission is completed when the research mission is completed, the AUV will sink to the surface and then be returned to the research vessel from which it was launched. A resident AUV can remain underwater for months and conduct regular inspections that are pre-programmed. In either scenario an AUV will periodically surface to signal its location using a GPS or acoustic signal, which is transmitted to the surface vessel.

Certain AUVs communicate with their operator continuously through a satellite link to the research ship. Scientists are able to continue their research on the ship while the AUV collects data under water. Other AUVs may communicate with their operators only at certain times, such as when they require fuel or verify the status of their sensors.

In addition to providing oceanographic information, AUVs can also be used to locate underwater resources such as minerals and natural gas, according to Free Think. They can also be utilized in response to environmental disasters, such as tsunamis or oil spills. They can be used to monitor subsurface volcano activity as well as the conditions of marine life, including whale populations or coral reefs.

Curious Robots

Contrary to traditional underwater robotics, which have been programmed to search for one feature on the ocean floor, the curious underwater robots are designed that they can look around and adapt to changes in the environment. This is crucial because the environment below the waves can be erratic. For example, if the temperature of the water suddenly increases, it could change the behavior of marine creatures or even cause an oil spill. Robots that are curious are designed to quickly and effectively detect these changes.

Researchers are working on a robotic platform that makes use of reinforcement learning to teach robots to be curious. The robot mop shark, which resembles the image of a child wearing an orange jacket with a green hand, can be taught to recognize patterns, which could indicate an interesting discovery. It is also able to make decisions about what it should do next, based on the outcome of its previous actions. The findings of this research could be applied to create an intelligent robot capable of self-learning and adapting to changes in its environment.

Other researchers are using robotics with a curious nature to investigate areas of the ocean that are too risky for human divers. For instance, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has a wacky robot called WARP-AUV which is used to locate and research shipwrecks. The robot can recognize reef creatures, and even distinguish semi-transparent jellyfish and fish from their dim backgrounds.

It takes years of training to teach an individual how to perform this. The brain of the WARPAUV is trained by exposing it to thousands of images of marine life, which means it can recognize familiar species upon its first dive. In addition to its ability as a marine detective the WARP-AUV has the ability to send topside supervisors live images of underwater scenes and sea creatures.

Other teams are working on robots that learn by observing the same curiosity humans do. For instance, a team headed by the University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering is exploring ways to teach robots to be curious about their surroundings. This team is part of a Honda Research Institute USA initiative to develop curious machines.

Remote Missions

There are many uncertainties with space missions that could lead to mission failure. Scientists don't know how long a mission will last, how well the spacecraft parts will function and if other forces or objects could hinder spacecraft operation. The Remote Agent software is designed to help reduce the uncertainty. It will be able to perform a variety of the complex tasks that ground control personnel do if they were DS1 at the time of the mission.

The Remote Agent software system consists of a planner/scheduler and an executive. It also includes model-based reasoning algorithms. The planner/scheduler creates a set activities based on time and events called tokens which are then passed to the executive. The executive determines how to expand these tokens into an orderly sequence of commands that are directly sent to the spacecraft.

During the experiment during the test, a DS1 crewmember will be available to observe the progress of the Remote Agent and deal with any issues outside of the scope of the test. Regional bureaus must adhere to Department guidelines for records management and keep all documentation related to the establishment of a remote mission.

REMUS SharkCam

Sharks are mysterious creatures, and scientists know little about their activities beneath the ocean's surface. However, scientists using an autonomous underwater vehicle known as REMUS SharkCam are starting to break through the blue layer, and the results are both astonishing and frightening.

The SharkCam team formed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, took the torpedo-shaped SharkCam to Guadalupe Island last year to monitor and film great white sharks in their natural habitat. The 13 hours of video footage with the visuals from the acoustic tag that is attached to the sharks reveal much about their underwater behavior.

The REMUS SharkCam developed in Pocasset, MA by Hydroid it is designed to track the position of a tagged animal without disturbing its behavior or causing alarm. It utilizes an omnidirectional ultra-short baseline navigation system to determine the range, bearing, and depth of the shark self-emptying vacuum. It and then closes in at a predetermined distance and location (left, right, above or below) to film it swimming and interacting with its environment. It is able to communicate with scientists on the surface every 20 seconds and accept commands to change speed, depth or standoff distance.

State shark scientist Greg Skomal, WHOI engineer Amy Kukulya, Pelagios-Kakunja best shark robot vacuum researcher Edgar Mauricio Hoyos-Padilla from Mexico's Marine Conservation Society and REMUS SharkCam software developer Roger Stokey first envisioned tracking and filming great whites using the self emptying shark robot-propelled torpedo, which they named REMUS SharkCam They were concerned that it could disrupt the sharks' movements, and possibly scare them away from the area they were studying. However, in a recent article published in the Journal of Fish Biology, Skomal and his colleagues write that despite nine bites and bumps from great whites weighing thousands of pounds in a week of research off the coast of Guadalupe, the SharkCam did not fail and revealed some interesting new behaviors of the great white shark.

Researchers interpreted the interactions between sharks and the REMUS SharkCam (which was able to track four tagged sharks) as predatory behavior. Researchers recorded 30 shark detect Pro self emptying robot vacuum interactions, which included simple bumps and nine bites that were aggressive.