Harnessing the potential for robotics and automation for restoring the worlds coral reefs
KAUST Research Conference on Robotics and Autonomy 2023
Speaker: David Suggett, Professor, KAUST Reefscape Restoration initiative (KRRI), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Abstract:
Restoration of Earth's ecosystems has accelerated as a critical management tool in the past decade, particularly for coral reefs where stakeholders have adopted restoration to offset continued declines in reef health. Most coral reef restoration programs remain locally targeted and sub-hectare, where scalability is generated through people networks. Of the few programs that are now beginning to operate at the largest multi-hectare scales - including the KAUST Reefscape Restoration Initiative (KRRI) - implementation of innovative robotics and automation is seen as key to deliver more industrial (agricultural) based processes that are proving critical to deliver effective terrestrial-based restoration. This presentation will first present the complex process of coral reef restoration, which spans growing and replanting new coral across challenging marine habitats to high-resolution ecological and environmental monitoring. Specifically, the critical steps of in-water coral propagation, land-based aquaculture propagation, transporting and re-attaching coral back to the reef, and tracking - and responding to - ecological and environmental change over space and time. In doing so, I outline how robotics and automation innovations are needed to transform these steps and so deliver the grand challenge of effective reef restoration at unprecedented scale.
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Conference:
The KAUST Research Conference on Robotics and Autonomy 2023 (RobotoKAUST 2023)
Organizing Committee:
Eric Feron, Shinkyu Park, Raquel Peixoto
Date:
08-10 May 2023
Venue:
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Website:
https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/robotokaust
Organization team and volunteers:
Mohamad T. Shahab, Renzo Caballero, Angelica Coronado Preciado, Kuat Telegenov, Mohammed Aldosari, Katja Gorenflot, Jumana Alashi, Hanouf Al-Hattan, Rehab Ashri, Marta Golem, Adeel Akhtar, Jun Chen, Abdullah Alharthi, Altayeb-Moh'd A. Al-Shedayfat, Amin Almozel, Nawaf Alotaibi, Shatha Alzahrani, Lucas Câmara Dantas Bezerra, Salman Ghori, Arman Ibrayeva, Anton Kim, Bilal Maassarani, Obadah Wali, Joanna M. Ogieglo, Norah Alghamdi
The KAUST Robotics, Intelligent Systems, and Control (RISC) Lab:
https://cemse.kaust.edu.sa/risclab