RangerBot (drone)

2018: Start of the drone

On September 3, 2018 the group of researchers started the drone which will patrol the Great Barrier Reef and to kill living creatures which it is destroyed.

It is known that on an equal basis with climate change, industrialization and environmental pollution starfishes of Acanthaster planci which eat its coral basis take part in destruction of the largest reef of the planet.

In 2015 researchers from the Technology University of Queensland provided the technology known as COTSbot to cope with this threat. Starfishes (with an accuracy of 99%) taught to look for this independent robot and to enter them poisonous chemical composition. Now the same research group provided RangerBot, a latest model on the basis of COTSbot. 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. It not only controls the number of population of starfishes, but also estimates a reef condition and also makes the map of underwater regions, working daily within eight hours.

Drones began to patrol the largest coral reef and to kill dangerous living creatures

RangerBot has advantage over the human divers who are carrying out the same task – it is cheaper, more effective and is capable to work at any time. Professor Matthew Dunbabin heading research group noted that to manage RangerBot from the tablet it is possible to learn in only 15 minutes. Developers paid special attention to create the most clear and simple user interface and therefore a bot all interested persons – researchers, workers from the sphere of environment protection and even school students volunteers can manage.

Researchers hope that thanks to the special software which can be configured on execution of different tasks RangerBot will find application and in other underwater ecosystems worldwide.^[1]

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