Jellyfish crushers Robots Act in South Korea

In recent years, the jellyfish populations along the coast of South Korea have increased enough to adversely affect the marine industry in the region, costing the country € 2 million ($ 6.2 million) per year. A team of scientists claims, however, have the solution to the problem â€" a series of autonomous robots that work together to make the tracing of jellyfish at sea and the grind.

The jellyfish are becoming a serious plague in South Korea â€" more than 2,000 people were treated for stings last year, including a child who died due to injuries. In recent years, the country has tried to solve the problem sweeping the coast with nets and releasing the animals from natural predators, but the method is very expensive and ineffective.

Hyun Myung, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and his team have been working on a robot since 2009 and completed last year, successfully a first test on the ground. More recently, the Group upgraded the speed and system programming.

Each robot is maintained on the surface by two structures equipped with motorized propellers that keep the unit stable in water, while controlling your speed and direction. A network is suspended under water and pulls the jellyfish using its own propulsion. The animals are so driven to a separate propeller that chops up instantly, creating a folder that is dispersed in water.

According to Gizmag, the robot uses a combination of GPS and INS (inertial navigation System) to accurately determine your location and orientation in the ocean. Researchers may update data via wireless about the sites with more jellyfish, so that the machine travels there alone.

As a single robot would take a long time to eliminate all the jellyfish in the region, the project includes several machines that coordinate efforts. A first robot is designated as the leader and determines the path to be followed by others, covering a large area. When traveling in a group, the robots shall exchange information, in order to ensure that they remain evenly spaced. This facilitates control researchers, who only have to focus on the path of the leader.

Tests conducted recently with three robots have a velocity of 7.2 km/hour and eradication of 900 kg of jellyfish per hour. In the long run, Myung expects his invention can be adapted to other missions, such as cleaning water of the sea, maritime surveillance and prevention of oil spillage.

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