COTSbot

Something bad is happening to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

The Great Barrier Reef is a coral reef system over 1400 miles long. It is composed of over 2900 individual reefs and 900 islands. It is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms (coral polyps) and is so big it can be seen from outer space. And it is being eaten.

The crown-of-thorns starfish is the carnivorous predator that is eating the Great Barrier Reef. One crown-of-thorns starfish can eat 65 square feet of coral polyps per day. According to some estimates, about 40% of the Great Barrier Reef’s coral polyps have already been eaten.

But technology may soon come to the rescue. Two robotics experts at the Queensland University of Technology have developed an anti-crown-of-thorns starfish robot called COTSbot. The robot will navigate the reef system using small thrusters and GPS. It will use a camera combined with machine learning and image recognition to find crown-of-thorns starfish. Upon finding one, it will maneuver above the starfish and inject bile salts into it, killing it. If the robot isn’t sure it has found a starfish, it will take a photo and send it back to the lab for analysis by a human. The battery-powered COTSbot can search the reef for eight hours before it needs recharging, and it can deliver 200 shots. If trials show the COTSbot works, the robot can be produced in quantity and released at multiple locations on the reef system.

I don’t know if starfish dream but, if they do, COTSbot may be their worst nightmare.