Great barrier: a robot to hunt down killer starfish

Australian scientists unveiled on Friday an underwater robot capable of tracking and killing the « crown of thorns », a coral-eating starfish that is wreaking havoc in the Great Barrier Reef.

The RangerBot was developed with a donation from Google and is intended to « protect the reef » inscribed on the World Heritage List, explained scientists at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

The immense reef that is the size of Japan or Italy suffered in 2016 and 2017 two serious episodes of bleaching of its corals due to increases in water temperature.

Experts estimate that an area 2,300 kilometres long could have suffered irreparable damage, due to climate change, industrial and agricultural activities, and the purple acanthaster, an invasive sea star, also known as the « crown of thorns » or « mother-in-law’s cushion ».

The robot has a battery life of eight hours and can monitor and map reef areas on a scale previously impossible.

« RangerBot is the world’s first robotic system specifically designed for coral reef environments, using only robot vision for real-time navigation, obstacle avoidance, and complex scientific missions, » said Matthew Dunbabin, professor at QUT.

« This multifunctional ocean drone can monitor a wide variety of problems that threaten coral reefs including bleaching, water quality, invasive species, pollution and silting.

The robot will also be able to detect acanthasters and « trigger a lethal injection, » he added, adding that it was safe for other species.