Green Wombat

Anyone who has read Elizabeth Kolbert’s recent New Yorker article on the impact of global warming on the world’s oceans knows there’s an apocalyptic sea change under way, wrought by climate change, over-fishing and coral bleaching. Next year an inexpensive but technologically advanced autonomous underwater robot is expected to hit the market to boost scientists’ efforts to monitor an area that covers two-thirds of the planet’s surface. The Starbug will keep tabs on water quality, map fish habitat and survey threatened coral reefs. Starbug’s designer, scientist Matthew Dunbabin, told Green Wombat that the little yellow robot also could be deployed to monitor fish populations and detect over-fishing as well as for use in underwater gas and oil exploration and to patrol harbors. Developed by Dunbabin’s team at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the 4-foot-long (1.2 meter) Starbug (CSIRO photo above) is highly manueverable thanks to innovative thruster technology that lets it explore coral reefs and other areas off limits to traditional – read big and heavy – submersibles. That means the Starbug doesn’t have to be tethered to a boat and can operate independently without human intervention.
Another breakthrough: the Starbug "sees" its surroundings, using robotic vision to navigate rather than expensive sonar. Its cameras and the onboard Linux operating system also allow the Starbug to identify and count, for instance, the invasive crown-of-thorns starfish. The marine pest is killing off parts of the Great
Barrier Reef, an ecological cash cow that generates $11 billion annually in tourism revenues. Given that the Great Barrier Reef covers some 135,000 square miles (349,000 square kilometers), detecting outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish is an impossible and prohibitively expensive job for human divers. Dunbabin envisions fleets of Starbugs launched from small boats that will swim around the Great Barrier Reef, transmitting data back to base.  For monitoring of bays and harbors, the Starbug can be launched from shore. The Starbug’s estimated cost of around $US 24,000 should fall with
mass production. Dunbabin’s team is now building the next generation Starbug and will use
the robot to conduct two habitat mapping trials early next year. "Currently we are talking with local and international companies for the commercialization of Starbug," says Dunbabin, pictured below with a Starbug prototype.