COTSBot
COTSBot is a small autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) {{convert|4.5|ft|m}} long, which is designed by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to kill the very destructive crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) in the Great Barrier Reef off the north-east coast of Australia. It identifies its target using an image-analyzing neural net to analyze what an onboard camera sees, and then lethally injects the starfish with a bile salt solution using a needle on the end of a long underslung foldable arm.
COTSBot uses GPS to navigate. The first version was created in the early 2000s with an accuracy rate of about 65%. After training COTSBot with machine learning, its accuracy rate rose to 99% by 2019.
COTSBot is capable of killing 200 crown-of-thorns starfish with its two liters capacity of poison. COTSBot is capable of performing about 20 runs per day, but multiple COTSBots will be necessary to significantly impact the crown of thorns starfish populations.
A smaller version of COTSBot called "RangerBot" is also being developed by QUT.
References
{{reflist|refs=
{{Cite magazine|last=Frisch|first=Iran|date=14 April 2016|title=The Great Barrier Reef's Best Hope is a Killer Robot|magazine=Wired|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/04/starfish-killer-robot/|url-status=live|access-date=11 November 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240724113228/https://www.wired.com/2016/04/starfish-killer-robot/|archive-date=24 July 2024}}
{{cite news|last=McLeish|first=Kathy|date=31 August 2015|title=New robot aims to terminate crown-of-thorns starfish threatening reef|work=ABC News|language=en-au|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-31/cotsbot-hope-new-robot-will-stop-crown-of-thorns-starfish/6738320|access-date=11 November 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108120659/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-31/cotsbot-hope-new-robot-will-stop-crown-of-thorns-starfish/6738320?nw=0|archive-date=8 November 2020|url-status=live}}
{{cite magazine|last=Platt|first=John R.|date=1 January 2016|title=A Starfish-Killing, Artificially Intelligent Robot Is Set to Patrol the Great Barrier Reef|magazine=Scientific American|volume=314|issue=1|page=16|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0116-16|pmid=26887184|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-starfish-killing-artificially-intelligent-robot-is-set-to-patrol-the-great-barrier-reef/|url-status=live|access-date=11 November 2024|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/lxzNt|archive-date=11 November 2024}}
{{cite web|last=Zeldovich|first=Lina|date=11 April 2019|title=Underwater Drone Hunts Coral-Eating Crown-of-Thorns Starfish|website=American Society of Mechanical Engineers|url=https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/underwater-drone-hunts-coraleating-crownofthorns|url-status=live|access-date=11 November 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241111140614/https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/underwater-drone-hunts-coraleating-crownofthorns|archive-date=11 November 2024}}
}}
{{Underwater diving}}
Category:Applied machine learning
Category:Artificial neural networks
Category:Autonomous underwater vehicles
Category:Mechanical pest control
Category:Queensland University of Technology
{{robot-stub}}