Reef Rover: A Littoral Zone Benthic Crawler

Описание: Presenters: Ed Williams, CEO, Robo Nautica, LLC

Sponsors: NOAA Central Library and Technology Partnerships Office (TPO)

Seminar Contacts: Tiffany House ([email protected])

Abstract: REEF ROVER is a tele-operated, bottom crawling robotic tractor for littoral zone benthic video survey, connected wirelessly to a surface vessel with 1.25km standoff via a Wi-Fi buoy with UTP Ethernet–to-Rover comms for untethered 1080p video, including wide-angle-to-macro capability that can fill the screen with a single coral polyp. Offering both mobility and camera stability, it combines the stability necessary for macro video of benthic organisms.

Keywords: Benthic, Underwater-Robotic, Video, Open-source

Bios: During Ed Williams' 13 years at iRobot Corporation’s Research and Military and Industrial Robotics Divisions, he helped build robots that have gone inside an inaccessible shaft in the Great Pyramid in Egypt, traveled 10 kilometers down a live oil well in Scotland, disarmed thousands of IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more. After iRobot, Mr. Williams designed a Development System for Underwater Robotic Vehicles (DSURV, US Patent 9315248) then launched Robo Nautica LLC to commercialize DSURV. Mr. Williams used it to build a proof-of-concept ‘Reef Rover’ whose successful sea trials at Gray’s Reef led to Robo Nautica’s SBIR grants to develop the Gray’s reef Rover to a near commercialization-ready prototype.