Skip to main content

‘Crop duster’ robot is helping reseed the Great Barrier Reef with coral

QUT's LarvalBot makes first delivery of coral babies

In a world first, an undersea robot developed by Australia’s Queensland University of Technology has delivered microscopic coral larvae to the Great Barrier Reef to help with its respawning. The breakthrough demonstration of the Larvalbot robot — which we first wrote about earlier this year — is a proof-of-concept which could one day be used to help rescue dying coral reefs around the world.

“This innovative project aims to increase the scale and efficiency of delivering microscopic coral larvae directly onto damaged sections of reefs, where many corals were killed during the 2016 and 2017 mass coral bleaching events,” Professor Peter Harrison, one of the chief investigators who helped lead the research, told Digital Trends. “The reason we need to do this is that the Great Barrier Reef, like most coral reefs around the world, is suffering from an ongoing loss of corals that are the foundation of these spectacularly beautiful and highly valuable coral reef systems. We need to intervene to increase the efficiency of restoring coral communities because many of these impacted reefs now have too few adult spawning corals left alive to recover naturally.”

QUT

Lavalbot is an aquatic robot, described by its creators as being akin to an “underwater crop duster.” It can be controlled from dry land using an iPad, which allows for its pilots to decide when the stream of coral larvae is pushed out. However, it could also operate autonomously using a bevy of onboard sensors. In its recent mission, it carried around 100,000 coral larvae. Over time, the plan is for this to be increased to millions.

So was the recent mission a success? “The larvae are microscopic — less than 1 millimeter long — so we can’t see the settled polyps on reef areas until they survive and grow to at least six to nine months old, when they usually become visible on the reef,” Harrison said. But all signs point the mission being a resounding success.

As for the next phase of the project, Harrison said that the team will be using Larvalbot as a part of similar reef restoration initiative in the Philippines in early 2019. It will then return to the Great Barrier Reef for its biggest mission to date later in the year.

Editors' Recommendations

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
‘LarvalBot’ underwater drone will reseed coral reefs damaged by climate change
coral reefs

Since August 2018, the Great Barrier Reef in the ocean off Australia has had a special protector -- an autonomous underwater drone called RangerBot that has monitored the status of the reef and protected the corals from the predatory crown-of-thorns starfish. But now researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia have announced that the RangerBot has a new mission: it is to be rechristened "LarvalBot" and will be repurposed to spread coral babies.

Reef Rangerbot becomes 'LarvalBot' to spread coral babies

Read more
Robot jellyfish could be used to patrol fragile coral reefs
robot jellyfish patrol coral reefs jellyfishrobot

Could schools of robot jellyfish soon be patrolling the world’s oceans, monitoring fragile environments such as coral reefs? That's the dream of U.S. researchers, comprising of scientists from Florida Atlantic University and the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

They have developed a nature-inspired soft underwater robot, capable of some impressive underwater locomotion -- including movement from side to side and swimming through small openings, all with the distinctive "jet propulsion" movement we instantly associate with jellyfish.

Read more
This camera eliminates the ocean waves so scientists can study coral
fluid cam coral health nasa fluidcam

Seeing Beneath the Waves with Technology

Think space is the final frontier? As NASA researcher Ved Chirayath points out, scientists know more about the surface of the moon and Mars combined than the ocean floor. With a camera and artificial intelligence, however, Chirayath is working to change that. Fluid Cam is a camera system that uses fluid lensing technology in order to eliminate the distortion of waves to see more detail and study the coastal ocean systems.

Read more