SBIR Phase I: Autonomous Underwater Animal Tracker

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种自主水下动物跟踪器，一种水下机器人，可以一次跟踪螃蟹或鱼数周到数月。卫星跟踪使我们在了解大型动物的行为和需求方面取得了巨大而迅速的进步。利用自主水下动物跟踪器将跟踪范围扩大到更广泛的海洋生物的机会预计也会取得类似的进展。为了生产这种机器人，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，这些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的大型跟踪研究超过12项，计划中的研究也更多，因此，面向服务的商业模式具有巨大的商业潜力。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是对世界行为的更详细了解？在我们的海洋中旅行的鱼类。随着世界人口的增长，我们继续给我们的星球带来更大的压力？的资源。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和昂贵的工作。例如，最近的海洋生物普查是一个由80多个国家的研究人员组成的全球网络，他们参与了一项为期10年的科学计划，以评估和解释海洋生物的多样性、分布和丰度。不幸的是，我们对海洋种群分布和迁徙的了解，大部分是基于经常每年一次的独立样本，如拖网取样，或使用固定的数据收集节点，如海洋生物普查所部署的节点。太平洋大陆架跟踪联合努力。

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.