Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Schools of Swimming Robots to Study Ocean Currents

by Terrence O'Brien on November 12, 2009 at 09:29 AM

Robot Swarms to Study Ocean Currents
If you happen to notice a swarm of robots floating past your beachfront home, don't panic; it's not the first wave of the SkyNet invasion. Aided by funding from the National Science Foundation, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is planning to deploy fleets of autonomous robots, possibly numbering in the hundreds, to study localized oceanic environments.

High on the list of phenomena to study is the way in which tiny sub-currents affect small organisms like plankton and their abilities to survive and move about the ocean. The robots, called "autonomous underwater explorers" (AUEs), will also provide important data about the spread of dangerous environmental toxins that arise from disasters like oil spills and harmful algae blooms.

The swarms will consist of tens or hundreds of smaller "soup-can-sized" robots, deployed alongside a larger bot (roughly the size of a soccer ball). Researchers are entering the study's pilot phase, which will consist of the construction and deployment of a couple dozen test models.

Barring the swarms becoming sentient, arming themselves, and launching an attack from the sea (possibly aided by their monkey allies on land), there seems to be no reason to complain about the $2.5 million being spent on this important research. Of course, we're sure we'll see reformed Luddite John McCain complaining about it via Twitter quite soon. [From: Live Science and SIO]

Tags: biology, nature, ocean, research, robots, science, top

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular