"COTSBot" submersible robot that automatically discovers natural enemies of coral reefs and automatically destroys poisonous needles

In recent years, coral reefs have been decreasing remarkably, and it is estimated that one-third of the world's corals have been killed in half a century. The cause of the sharp decline in coral reef is not only rising seawater temperature due to global warming, but also natural enemy's "OnigotodeIt is thought that how to eliminate the onihitde is an important key to protect coral reefs. Under such circumstances, an automatic disinfect diving robot that Australian researchers aim to shoot off the onihitde "COTSBot"We are developing.

Poison-Injecting Robot Submarine Assassinates Sea Stars to Save Coral Reefs - IEEE Spectrum
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/poison-robot-submarine?

In Japan, examples of cases where coral reefs are destroyed by exhausting large amounts of Onigiriden have been confirmed in Okinawa near the seas, Tokushima Prefecture and Mugi Ooshima, etc., due to the massive occurrence of Onigiridae in the seas around the world A sharp decline in coral reefs has become a big problem.

It is a coral reef that is important for ecosystems because various living creatures inhabit, but since it takes a very long time to be formed, it is almost impossible to regenerate once it is destroyed. For this reason, in order to solve the problem of coral reef reduction by Onihitde, it is necessary to exterminate the onihide, but there is a limit to how humans can exterminate them by hand, there is little effect before the breeding speed of the onihide starfish is.


Therefore, in order to enable efficient disinfection of Onihide, researchers at Queensland Institute of Technology in Australia are developing a submersible robot "COTSBot" which automatically aims at Onigtode, kills and kills drugs I will.


You can see what type of robot COTSBot is in the following movie.

QUT roboticists launch their crown-of-thorns killing robot - YouTube


Two people will slowly lift COTSBot.


The COTSBot which the cable was connected to the stern slowly advanced ......


Begin diving.


I will insert a dummy that I thought of as Onitde under the submarine.


The arm of COTSBot approaches Onihitodehimi ... ...


A pick as a spear. I will persistently attack the dummy with a needle.


Poison containing thiosulfate citrate which kills onihide dead within 24 hours is thrown from the needle.


The onihitode dummy was blown away by too much fierce attack.


The hull of COTSBot looks like this. The GPS antenna on the upper part of the hull can be used to identify the exact position and the forward and bottom cameras can be used to check the direction of travel and Onihide. The arm with poison needle is usually folded down on the bottom.


The following movie shows how COTSBot accurately recognizes the onihidode covered with coral reefs and makes attacks.

Crown-of-thorns starfish Detection system - COTSBot - YouTube


COTSBot is capable of dive for 6 hours or more at maximum speed of 7.2 kilometers. It also has the ability to automatically distinguish among the coral reefs. By introducing COTSBot, it is expected that massive disinfection of Onigirida far exceeding manual disinfection by conventional divers will be possible.

However, as it is pointed out that the fundamental cause of mass production of Onigiridae is eutrophication of seawater accompanying human industrial activities, not only introduction of high-tech equipment such as COTSBot, but also other fundamental reforms It is better to forget that you also need to embark on it.