Gang of Submarine Machines Imitates Marine creatures' Habits under the Sea
In the depths of the ocean, a groundbreaking study is shedding light on the mysteries of plankton behavior. A team of researchers, led by Paul Roberts, Ryan Kastner, Diba Mirza, Curt Schurgers, and Adrien Boch, have deployed a swarm of miniature autonomous underwater explorers (M-AUEs) off the coast of Torrey Pines, near La Jolla, Calif.
These robots, developed by Jules Jaffe at the University of California San Diego, are designed to study small-scale environmental processes in the ocean, including the behavior of plankton. The M-AUEs mimic swarm behavior, enabling wide-area monitoring to observe how ocean currents influence plankton movement and aggregation patterns.
The 16 grapefruit-sized M-AUEs were programmed to mimic the underwater swimming behavior of plankton, making them an ideal tool to test a mathematical theory about how plankton form dense patches under the ocean surface. This theory, published by Scripps biological oceanographer Peter Franks two decades ago, predicts that swimming plankton will form dense patches when pushed around by internal waves.
The experiment involved deploying a 300-meter (984-foot) diameter swarm of the M-AUEs. The robots were programmed to stay 10-meters (33-feet) deep in the ocean and adjust their buoyancy to move vertically against the currents created by internal waves. The three-dimensional location information collected every 12 seconds revealed the movement of the M-AUE swarm below the ocean surface.
The results of the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, confirmed that free-floating plankton can use the physical dynamics of the ocean to increase their concentrations and congregate into swarms. The M-AUE swarm formed a tightly packed patch in the warm waters of the internal wave troughs, but dispersed over the wave crests, as predicted by Franks' theory.
The surrounding ocean temperatures fluctuated as the internal waves passed through the M-AUE swarm, providing additional evidence to support the theory. The low cost of the M-AUEs allowed Jaffe and his team to build a small army of the robots that could be deployed in a swarm, potentially enabling the deployment of hundreds to thousands of M-AUEs to capture a three-dimensional view of the interactions between ocean currents and marine life.
The research team hopes to build hundreds more of the miniature robots to study various oceanic phenomena, including the movement of larvae between marine protected areas, monitoring harmful red tide blooms, and tracking oil spills. A key component of the project was the development of mathematical techniques to use acoustic signals to track the M-AUEs while they were submerged.
This innovative approach to studying plankton behavior and distribution is revolutionising our understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics. By employing autonomous underwater robots in swarms, researchers can unlock the secrets of plankton behavior, providing valuable insights into the complex world beneath the ocean's surface.
- The use of technology, such as the miniature autonomous underwater explorers (M-AUEs), is playing a crucial role in ocean exploration, as they help scientists better understand plankton behavior.
- The findings of the study, utilizing science to decipher plankton behavior patterns, show that technology can play a significant role in molding our understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics, leading to valuable insights about the complex world beneath the ocean's surface.
