SBIR Phase I: Autonomous Underwater Animal Tracker

SBIR 第一阶段：自主水下动物追踪器

• 批准号: 0944737
• 负责人: Patrick Simpson
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Scientific Fishery Systems, Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-01-01 至 2010-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0944737&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Autonomous; Underwater; Animal

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop an autonomous underwater animal tracker, an underwater robot that can follow a crab or fish for weeks to months at a time. Satellite tracking has allowed huge, rapid advances in understanding behaviors and requirementsof large animals. The opportunity to extend tracking to a wider range of marine life using an autonomous underwater animal tracker is expected to yield similar advances. To produce this robot we will modify an underwater glider, making it capable of detecting, localizing and tracking a marine animal that has an acoustic transmitter attached to, or embedded in, its body. With overa dozen large tracking studies currently underway worldwide and more planned, there is tremendous commercial potential for a service-oriented business model to prosper.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is a much more detailed understanding of the behavior of the world?s fish that travel our oceans. As the world population grows, we continue to place greater strain on our planet?s resources. There is a need to gain more definitive answers regarding the impact humans are having on marine life, but collecting data from animals is a highly complex and expensive proposition. As an example, consider the recent Census of Marine Life, a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. Unfortunately, much of our knowledge regarding the distributions and migrations of our marine populations is based on independent samples often taken once per year, such as trawl sampling, or using stationary data collection nodes such as those deployed by the Census of Marine Life?s Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking joint effort.

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种自主水下动物追踪器，这是一种水下机器人，可以一次跟踪螃蟹或鱼数周至数月。卫星跟踪使人们在了解大型动物的行为和需求方面取得了巨大而快速的进展。使用自主水下动物追踪器将追踪扩展到更广泛的海洋生物的机会预计将产生类似的进步。为了生产这个机器人，我们将修改水下滑翔机，使其能够检测、定位和跟踪海洋动物，该海洋动物的身体上附着或嵌入了声学发射器。目前全球范围内正在进行十多项大型跟踪研究，并且更多的研究正在计划中，以服务为导向的商业模式的繁荣具有巨大的商业潜力。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是更详细地了解世界海洋中的鱼类的行为。随着世界人口的增长，我们继续对地球资源造成更大的压力。关于人类对海洋生物的影响，需要获得更明确的答案，但从动物身上收集数据是一项非常复杂且昂贵的任务。以最近的海洋生物普查为例，这是一个由 80 多个国家的研究人员组成的全球网络，开展了一项为期 10 年的科学计划，旨在评估和解释海洋生物的多样性、分布和丰富度。不幸的是，我们对海洋种群分布和迁徙的了解大多基于每年一次的独立样本，例如拖网采样，或使用固定数据收集节点，例如海洋生物普查太平洋架跟踪联合部署的节点。