How do you make a robot to monitor things while still at home? You make a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), an ASV (Autonomous Surface Vehicle), or an AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) . But what if you need to monitor three areas at once, like from the sky, the surface, and underwater, what do you do? You make a UAV, an ASV, and an AUV.
And this is what this trio does. Used to monitor coral reefs, the trio consists of Unicorn UAV, MARE ASV, and Aqua AUV. They work together to accurately monitor the coral reefs. But how do they do this?
First, Unicorn UAV scans the surface. It provides up-to-date, high quality images of the surface of the ocean to the scientists who control it from afar. Then, scientists specify important areas. The Unicorn UAV then sends this data to the other two robots and continues to monitor the area.
Next, we have the MARE ASV. This has one main purpose, which is to communicate with Unicorn UAV and Aqua AUV. It caches all messages that the Unicorn UAV sends to it. This is important because the Aqua AUV can only receive info when it surfaces, but the Unicorn UAV has limited battery life and cannot wait around to send data to the Aqua AUV.
And finally, we have the Aqua AUV. The Aqua AUV takes the really important details like close-up photography and analysis. It surfaces to send and receive data.
We see that together, this trio of robots makes the ultimate research tool. Scientists can use them together from a very far distance, making it almost unnecessary to even visit the area in person. What’s more, they work fast, much faster than using conventional research methods. And field tests have shown that they can be using in application and are robust enough to withstand whatever the ocean throws at them.
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