The challenges surrounding the preservation of marine environments are significant. These issues include the ability to adequately monitor the status of these areas, due to their massive size and the commensurate amount of human resources required to take measurements, collect samples, and catalog the data.
With this in mind, researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science recently modified a remotely operated underwater robot, called the Blue ROV2, with a hyperspectral camera capable of capturing more than 270 bands of color that are often too complex for the human eye to detect. These robots can dive as deep as 320’ in capturing greater details about underwater environments such as coral reefs. The cameras can also help with mapping ocean or lake floors and verifying water depth.
Using the ROVs with aerial drones helps scientists to free up additional researchers for more critical work. These unmanned vehicles not only accelerate data collection and processing but allow for expanding research to encompass new types of condition monitoring. Additionally, these camera-toting robots can be used in areas that might be unsafe for divers because of predatory animals like sharks or dangerous environmental factors such as shifting tides and weather.
Image Credit: Emma Chadwick / Australian Institute of Marine Science / https://www.aims.gov.au/