Grace, Gliding Robot ACE, to travel waterways and keep tabs of the quality of life's blood (via MSU)
Water makes up 71% of our earthly home and is essential for all forms of life on this planet. Thus, monitoring the quality of water is a significant and developing pursuit for oceanographers as they look to maintain healthy water composition for the benefit of us all. Recently, a team of Michigan State University researchers developed a water-friendly robot that aims to help analyze the composition of our rivers, lakes, oceans, and streams. The robotic fish, named Grace, short for “Gliding Robot Ace”, appears more like an underwater jet-plane or a remote-controlled submarine. It is a considerable upgrade to commercial underwater gliders used by oceanographers, who deal with systems that are about 10 times heavier and larger. Xiaobo Tan, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering over at MSU, and his team built Grace and armed it with the necessary sensors and driving gear to move through bodies of water while checking for water temperature and chemical composition. Originally, the robo-fish was primarily driven by flapping its mechanical tail, which simulated an energy-draining swimming motion that would diminish the on-board battery in just a few hours. This time around, Grace was equipped with the ability to both swim by flapping its tail and to glide via a pump that moves water through the robot’s body. To test out the newly improved device, the team set out for a test run at the Kalamazoo River, home of a recent 2010 oil spill. Sure enough, the underwater glider detected crude oil levels both upriver and downstream from where the oil spill occurred; the latter gave a higher reading. Tan rejoiced by commenting that they may have set a world record by being the first team to use a robotic-fish to monitor commercial water quality levels As the importance of monitoring our environmental conditions remains an important issue, the development of aquatic robots such as MSU’s Grace greatly improve our ability to keep our home well-hydrated and healthy.
Cabe
