As we get further and further into the 21st century, our advances in certain areas of technology continue to look an awful lot like what we’ve read in science fiction books and watched in science fictions movies. Robotics is one area that is advancing at a rapid rate along several different parallel areas. One area in which robotics has served a key purpose is that of animal research. One experiment was recently carried out off the coast of Portugal combining ocean robotics and marine biology.
Researchers used a new fleet of robotic vehicles that tracked more than a dozen Mola mola fish. The robots were tracking these fish, as they hunt for food along the coastal ocean. The tracking of these fish will allow researchers a better idea of how ocean creatures behave in a wide variety of different situations. Along with tracking huge groups of animals, the researchers are also looking for better ways to map the seafloor as well as to develop new ways to handle search and rescue operations taking place in the open water.
The experiment, known as Rapid Environment Picture 2013 (REP-13) ran from July 8 to the 18th. The project was led from a professor from the University of Porto and was run in conjunction with the articial intelligence researcher from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
The experiment involved tagged Mola mola fish that were tracked and followed both by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The UAVs fly low over the water and allow the researchers to track the migration of the Mola molas through the air. The AUVs are able to take a different approach and track the school of fish that have been tagged from under the water. The AUVs especially are also able to record information such as the temperature and chemistry of the ocean waters that the fish travel through.
