RangerBot (drone)

2018: Drone launch

On September 3, 2018, a team of researchers launched a drone that will patrol the Great Barrier Reef and kill the wildlife that destroys it.

It is known that along with climate change, industrialization and pollution, sea stars "crown of thorns" (Acanthaster planci), which feed on its coral base, take part in the destruction of the planet's largest reef.

In 2015, researchers at Queensland University of Technology unveiled a technology known as COTSbot to tackle the threat. This autonomous robot was taught to search for starfish (with 99% accuracy) and introduce a poisonous chemical composition to them. Now, the same research team has introduced RangerBot, the latest COTSbot-based model. The yellow underwater bot is similar to a small fluorescent shark with motors instead of fins - with a length of 75 cm, it weighs only 15 kg. Not only does it control the population size of starfish, it also assesses the state of the reef and also maps underwater regions, working daily for eight hours.

Drones begin patrolling the largest coral reef and killing dangerous wildlife

RangerBot has an advantage over human divers performing the same task - it is cheaper, more efficient and capable of running at any time of day or night. Professor Matthew Dunbabin, who heads the research team, noted that you can learn how to control RangerBot from a tablet in just 15 minutes. The developers paid special attention to creating the most understandable and simple user interface, and therefore the bot can be controlled by all interested parties - researchers, environmental workers and even student volunteers.

The researchers hope that thanks to special software that can be configured to perform various tasks, RangerBot will find application in other underwater ecosystems around the world.^[1]

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