|Robot Killer To Defend Great Barrier Reef
|Written by Lucy Black
|Saturday, 05 September 2015
Researchers in Australia have developed a robot submarine that can identify the crown of thorn sea stars that destroy coral reefs and deliver a lethal injection.
The world's coral reefs are dying. There are many contributory factors including overfishing, pollution, damage from careless scuba divers and climate change. According to Queensland University of Technology, however, it is the crown of thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) that is responsible for 50 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef's total decline in coral cover.
To combat this problem, researchers at QUT are now trialling COTSbot, an autonomous underwater vehicle equipped with a vision system that recognizes the predatory sea stars (COTSS) and delivers poison via a robotic arm. A single shot of poison kills a COTSS in 24 hours but as it is harmless to everything else on the reef it doesn't matter if a single COTSS is injected repeatedly.
The COTSbot is 30-kilogram robotic yellow submarine designed to operate without a tether and execute missions with minimal human interaction once deployed. It is equipped with stereoscopic cameras to give it depth perception, five thrusters to maintain stability, GPS and pitch-and-roll sensors and a unique pneumatic injection arm to deliver the poison.
Its computer vision and machine learning system is based on six months of training the robot to recognise COTS among coral, using thousands of still images of the reef and videos taken by COTS-eradicating divers. According to Dr Feras Dayoub from QUT's Science and Engineering Faculty and Australian Centre for Robotic Vision, who designed the COTS-detecting software, the robot will continue to learn from its experiences in the field:
"If the robot is unsure that something is actually a COTS, it takes a photo of the object to be later verified by a human, and that human feedback is incorporated into the robot's memory bank."
This video shows its detection system in action:
COTSbot's creator, Dr Matthew Dunbabin from QUT's Institute for Future Environments, said
"Human divers are doing an incredible job of eradicating this starfish from targeted sites but there just aren't enough divers to cover all the COTS hotspots across the Great Barrier Reef.
We see the COTSbot as a first responder for ongoing eradication programs - deployed to eliminate the bulk of COTS in any area, with divers following a few days later to hit the remaining COTS.
The COTSbot becomes a real force multiplier for the eradication process the more of them you deploy - imagine how much ground the programs could cover with a fleet of 10 or 100 COTSbots at their disposal, robots that can work day and night and in any weather condition."
This is an excellent example of giving robots a task that, as well as being tedious and time consuming, would otherwise be too expensive, or potentially dangerous for humans to do. However having a robot kill something living is still a little disturbing to some given the recent call to ban autonomous weapons.
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|Last Updated ( Saturday, 05 September 2015 )
"Mwanasayansi wa Australia amevumbua ""robot submarine"" ambayo inaweza kutambua nyota za bahari zinazoangamiza matumbawe na kutoa sindano ya mauti." Miamba ya matumbawe ulimwenguni pote inakufa. Kuna sababu nyingi zinazochangia, ikiwa ni pamoja na uvuvi wa kupita kiasi, uchafuzi wa mazingira, uharibifu unaosababishwa na wapiga mbizi wasio na uangalifu na mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa. Kulingana na Chuo Kikuu cha Teknolojia cha Queensland, nyota ya baharini ya Acanthus planctus ni moja ya sababu kubwa ya kupotea kwa matumbawe katika barafu ya Great Barrier Reef. Kwa hivyo, kwa sababu ya hali hiyo, watafiti wa QT wanajaribu COTSBOT, gari la kujitegemea la chini ya maji lililowekwa na mfumo wa maono ambayo hutambua nyota za baharini za kuwinda na kutoa sumu kupitia mkono wa roboti. "Kichwa cha sumu cha ""Cotse"" huua katika masaa 24 lakini kwa kuwa haina madhara kwa kila kitu kingine kwenye mwamba, haijalishi ikiwa COTS moja imeingizwa mara kwa mara." "Cotrobot ni ""kiumbe"" cha robotic ya rangi ya manjano yenye uzito wa kilo 30 iliyoundwa kufanya kazi bila kamba na kutekeleza misheni na mwingiliano mdogo wa binadamu mara moja itakapotumiwa." Ina kamera za stereoscopic ili kugundua kina, thrusters tano ili kudumisha utulivu, GPS na sensorer za pitch-and-roll na mkono wa kipekee wa sindano ya hewa ili kutoa sumu. Mfumo wa kuona kwa kompyuta na kujifunza kwa mashine unategemea miezi sita ya mafunzo ya roboti kutambua COTS kati ya matumbawe, kwa kutumia maelfu ya picha za barafu na video zilizochukuliwa na wapiga mbizi wa COTS. "Kulingana na Dk Feras Dayoub, Mhandisi wa Sayansi na Uhandisi wa Chuo Kikuu cha QT na Kituo cha Australia cha Maono ya Robot, ambaye alibuni programu ya kugundua COTS, roboti hiyo itaendelea kujifunza kutoka kwa uzoefu wake katika uwanja: ""Ikiwa roboti haijui ikiwa kitu ni COTS, inachukua picha ya kitu hicho ili kuthibitishwa na binadamu, na maoni ya binadamu yanaingizwa kwenye benki ya kumbukumbu ya robot." "Mwanzilishi wa COTSBot, Dk Matthew Dunbabin kutoka Taasisi ya Mazingira ya Baadaye ya QUT, alisema: ""Wavuzi wa binadamu wanafanya kazi ya ajabu ya kuondoa nyota hii ya bahari kutoka kwa maeneo yaliyolengwa, lakini hakuna wavuvi wa kutosha kufunika maeneo yote ya COTS katika Great Barrier Reef." "Bots ni ""mtu wa kwanza anayejibu kwa ajili ya mipango ya kukomesha inayoendelea - kutumika kuondoa sehemu kubwa ya COTS katika eneo lolote, na wavuvi kufuatia siku chache baadaye kugonga COTS iliyobaki.""" "Boti ya COTS inakuwa ""mchanganyiko wa nguvu"" halisi kwa mchakato wa kuondoa, kadiri unavyoweka zaidi - fikiria ni kiasi gani cha ardhi programu zinaweza kufunika na meli ya COTS 10 au 100 iliyopo, roboti ambazo zinaweza kufanya kazi mchana na usiku na katika hali yoyote ya hali ya hewa. """ Hii ni mfano mzuri wa kuwapa roboti kazi ambayo, pamoja na kuwa ya kuchosha na kuchukua muda, ingekuwa gharama kubwa sana, au uwezekano wa hatari kwa wanadamu kufanya. Hata hivyo kuwa na roboti kuua kitu hai bado ni kidogo kusumbua kwa baadhi ya wito wa hivi karibuni kupiga marufuku silaha za kujitegemea. "Kama unavyoona, unaweza kuandika barua pepe kwa ""Sajili ya kwanza, jina la mwisho, na jina la mwisho"" (Siku ya Jumamosi, Septemba 5, 2015) na kisha kuandika barua pepe kwa ""Sajili ya mwisho, jina la mwisho, na jina la mwisho."""