Tracking Sharks With Robots
Scientists have been tracking sharks using robots for decades. But a new design allows them to do this while tracking the animal. The system was created by biologists from Mote Marine Laboratory, and engineers from Harvey Mudd College using components that were readily available.
It can endure a pull-off force that is 340 times greater than its own weight. It can also sense changes in objects and change its course to accommodate them.
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)
Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) are robots that can be programmed to operate according to the design they can drift or move through the ocean, with no any human supervision in real-time. They come with sensors that record water parameters, map and map ocean geological features as well as habitats, and more.
They are typically operated from a surface ship using Wi-Fi or an audio link to send data back to the operator. They are used to collect any kind of spatial or temporal samples and can be used in large groups to cover more ground faster than can be accomplished by one vehicle.
Similar to their land counterparts, AUVs can navigate using GPS and a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to determine where they are in the world and how far they've been from where they started. This positioning information, along with environmental sensors that send data to computer systems onboard, allows AUVs to follow a pre-planned course without losing sight of their goal.
After completing a research mission after completing a research project, the AUV will float up to the surface. It will be retrieved by the research vessel from the vessel from which it was launched. 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 in order to transmit its location via the GPS or acoustic signal which is transmitted to the surface vessel.
Certain AUVs communicate with their operator constantly via an internet connection on the research ship. This lets scientists continue to conduct experiments from their ship while the AUV is away collecting data under water. Other AUVs communicate with their owners at specific times. For example, when they need to replenish their sensors or check their status.
Free Think claims that AUVs aren't just used to collect data from oceanography but also to search underwater resources, including minerals and gas. They can also be utilized to respond to environmental catastrophes like tsunamis or oil spills. They can also be used to monitor subsurface volcano activity and the conditions of marine life, like whale populations or coral reefs.
Curious Robots
Unlike traditional undersea robots, which are preprogrammed to search for only one element of the ocean floor, curious robots are designed to look around and adapt to changing conditions. This is important since the conditions beneath the waves can be unpredictable. If the water suddenly heats up it could alter the behavior of marine animals, or even cause an oil spill. Curious robots can detect the changes swiftly and efficiently.
Researchers are working on a robotic system that uses reinforcement learning to teach robots to be curious. The robot, which appears like a child with yellow jacket and a green arm can be taught to spot patterns that could indicate an interesting discovery. It also can decide what it should do next, in relation to the results of its previous actions. The findings of this research could be applied to create an intelligent robot capable of self-learning and adapting to the changing environment.
Other researchers are using robotics with a curious nature to investigate areas of the ocean that are risky for human divers. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's (WHOI), for example has a robot known as WARP-AUV, which is used to investigate wrecks of ships and to locate them. This robot is able to identify reef creatures and even discern fish and semi-transparent jellyfish from their dim backgrounds.
It takes years to learn to do this. The brain of the WARP-AUV has been trained to recognize familiar species after a lot of images have been fed to it. 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 creating robots with the same curiosity as humans. For instance, a group headed by the University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering is looking for robotvacuummops - https://www.robotvacuummops.com/products/shark-ai-robot-vacmop-pro-black... ways to train robots to be curious about their surroundings. This team is a part of a Honda Research Institute USA initiative to create curious machines.
Remote Missions
There are many uncertainties with space missions that can result in mission failure. Scientists don't know how long the mission's events will take, how well parts of the spacecraft work or if other objects or forces will affect the spacecraft's operations. The Remote Agent software is designed to help reduce the uncertainty. It can perform many of the complicated tasks ground control personnel would perform if they were on DS1 during the mission.
The Remote Agent software system includes an executive planner/scheduler, and model-based reasoning algorithms. The planner/scheduler creates a set of time-based, event-based activities known as tokens that are delivered to the executive. The executive decides on how to transform these tokens into an array of commands that are directly sent to the spacecraft.
During the experiment there will be during the test, a DS1 crew member will be present to monitor the progress of the Remote Agent and deal with any problems outside the scope of the test. All regional bureaus should follow Department requirements for records management and maintain all documents that is used to establish a specific remote mission.
REMUS SharkCam
Researchers have no idea of the actions of sharks below the surface. But researchers using an autonomous underwater vehicle called SharkCam from REMUS are beginning to break through the blue veil, and the results are incredible and terrifying.
The SharkCam team formed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, took the torpedo-shaped SharkCam to Guadalupe Island last year to track and film great white sharks in their natural habitat. The 13 hours of video footage with the images from the acoustic tag that is attached to the sharks tell us a lot about their behavior underwater.
The REMUS sharkCam, built by Hydroid in Pocasset MA, is designed to follow the location of a animal that has been tagged without disrupting their behavior or causing alarm. It employs an multidirectional ultra-short baseline navigation device to determine the range, bearing, and depth of the shark, and then closes in at a predetermined distance and position (left or right, above or below) to film it swimming and interacting with its environment. It can communicate with scientists on the surface every 20 seconds Efficient Cleaning and Mopping with Shark's AI Vacuum - https://www.robotvacuummops.com/products/shark-ai-ultra-robot-vacuum-mop accept commands to change relative speed or depth or standoff distance.
When Roger Stokey, REMUS SharkCam creator Roger Stokey, and Edgar Mauricio Hoyos Padilla, Pelagios Kakunja shark researcher from Mexico's Marine Conservation Society, first imagined tracking great whites using the self-propelled REMUS SharkCam torpedo, they were worried that the torpedo might disrupt the sharks' movement and could even scare them away. Skomal and his colleagues, revealed in a recent paper published in the Journal of Fish Biology that the SharkCam was able to survive nine bumps and a biting attack from great whites weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds over a week of study near the coast of Guadalupe.
Researchers interpreted the interactions between sharks and REMUS SharkCam (which had been tracking four tagged sharks) as predatory behavior. They documented 30 shark interactions with the robot, including bumps, simple approaches and, on nine occasions, aggressive bites from sharks that appeared to be aiming at REMUS.