• Swarms of Scottish Robots Will Find and Heal Damaged Coral
    46 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Swarms of caretaker robots will soon buzz around the damaged coral reefs of Scotland, re-cementing broken sections with utmost precision. Researchers at Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University are programming autonomous underwater vehicles to follow a set of simple rules, like bees in a swarm, to keep corals healthy. Though they may not host tropical fish, the waters off the west coast of Scotland are full of reef-forming corals, which are crucial for providing habitat for fish and sharks as well as seeding coral offspring all the way to the Arctic. Like tropical corals, Scottish corals are threatened by fishing activities, which can damage or kill large sections of the reefs. Corals can take years or even decades to recover from damage. Volunteer scuba divers try to help matters by reassembling coral communities on a reef’s existing framework. But flippered humans can only dive so deep and do so much. Heriot-Watt life sciences professor Lea-Anne Henry is programming robots to do the work instead. First visual recognition algorithms must be trained to recognize pieces of reef and differentiate coral from something else, like sponges or sea garbage, to ensure the right thing is being reattached. Then the autonomous underwater vehicles would work together to rebuild damaged areas. The AUVs will need some level of independence, so that if one fails, the others can still function -- but they’ll also have to work together, following the same set of rules. Heriot-Watt professors are currently developing the control algorithms and sets of rules that will drive the robots, and the university provided funding to kickstart the project. Someday, coralbots could deploy anywhere the world’s reefs are threatened, Henry said in a statement. “Swarms of robots could be instantaneously deployed after a hurricane or in a deep area known to be impacted by trawling, and rebuild the reef in days to weeks, instead of years to centuries,” Henry said.[/quote] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-08/scottish-robot-swarms-will-tend-damaged-corals-helping-them-regrow[/url]
We need this in a lot of other places around the world.
The way to save the planet isn't through Luddism and attempting to throw away the progress we achieved - it's too late for that. We need to develop ways to help the nature to regenerate the damage we have done and will do. This particular case is brilliant.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;37433929]The way to save the planet isn't through Luddism and attempting to throw away the progress we achieved - it's too late for that. We need to develop ways to help the nature to regenerate the damage we have done will do. This particular case is brilliant.[/QUOTE] Nah. Just avoid killing it entirely until we're a space faring society. Once we've conquered space we can just sod the earth entirely and bugger off to another world.
And the only byproduct is pure alcohol!
[img]http://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/thumb/c/c1/Demobot_blu.png/300px-Demobot_blu.png[/img]
[QUOTE=MightyMax;37434051][img]http://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/thumb/c/c1/Demobot_blu.png/300px-Demobot_blu.png[/img][/QUOTE] Honestly, I'm surprised this wasn't the first post. I was waiting for it.
[QUOTE=TestECull;37433983]Nah. Just avoid killing it entirely until we're a space faring society. Once we've conquered space we can just sod the earth entirely and bugger off to another world.[/QUOTE] Because we have very optimistic chances of that happening [I]anytime[/I] soon, right?
So cool. They're like little underwater carpenters!
[QUOTE=MightyMax;37434051][img]http://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/thumb/c/c1/Demobot_blu.png/300px-Demobot_blu.png[/img][/QUOTE] Exactly what I was thinking when I saw the thread.
O AYE LADDY THATS A WEE BIT OF A SCRATCH YA GOT THERE PUT SOME WHISKEY ON THAT BE GOOD AS NEW [editline]28th August 2012[/editline] KILTS AND DEEP FRIED SHORT BREAD
[QUOTE=TestECull;37433983]Nah. Just avoid killing it entirely until we're a space faring society. Once we've conquered space we can just sod the earth entirely and bugger off to another world.[/QUOTE] No, we fix Earth. We've already proven this big ass blue marble can't sustain us all, so what makes you think a planet we likely would have had to convert and remodel into a habitable enviroment could do such a thing? And getting our asses into space will help - if we move a significant percentage of our population to another planet, that's that entire chunk's usage of resources and air and things taken out of the equation. If we're not taxing the planet so much, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to fix it.
[QUOTE=lavacano;37434273]No, we fix Earth. We've already proven this big ass blue marble can't sustain us all, so what makes you think a planet we likely would have had to convert and remodel into a habitable enviroment could do such a thing? And getting our asses into space will help - if we move a significant percentage of our population to another planet, that's that entire chunk's usage of resources and air and things taken out of the equation. If we're not taxing the planet so much, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to fix it.[/QUOTE] But...this planet is currently sustaining all of us?
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;37434310]But...this planet is currently sustaining all of us?[/QUOTE] Alright let me rephrase here. Sure we can live here for quite a bit longer, but in no way is it indefinite.
Like the article said, they do this by hand after bad storms and such. Coral fragging is a simple idea. You can take any hard coral, cut a chunk off, then glue that chuck to a rock and it will grow on its own. [img]http://i.imgur.com/olUmZ.jpg[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/qD7qB.jpg[/img] You can even do it in an aquarium setting [img]http://i.imgur.com/tYFbm.jpg[/img] I imagine these things are going to buzz around and clip corals to make frags, then plant them somewhere else on the reef. Pretty neat idea.
[QUOTE=lavacano;37434355]Alright let me rephrase here. Sure we can live here for quite a bit longer, but in no way is it indefinite.[/QUOTE] There's a [I]lot[/I] space left on this planet.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;37434467]There's a [I]lot[/I] space left on this planet.[/QUOTE] And most of it is inhospitable. That's why we're not already using it. [QUOTE=Awesomecaek;37434080]Because we have very optimistic chances of that happening [I]anytime[/I] soon, right?[/QUOTE] We ain't gonna be able to 'fix' earth. We're going to have to leave it regardless. [QUOTE=lavacano;37434273]No, we fix Earth. We've already proven this big ass blue marble can't sustain us all, so what makes you think a planet we likely would have had to convert and remodel into a habitable enviroment could do such a thing?[/quote] We're not going to 'fix' earth. The earth is doomed. We need to leave it behind, find other inhabitable worlds. [quote]And getting our asses into space will help - if we move a significant percentage of our population to another planet, that's that entire chunk's usage of resources and air and things taken out of the equation. If we're not taxing the planet so much, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to fix it.[/QUOTE] You don't 'fix' earth though. We can only buy it some time, we're still going to deplete it regardless of what we do. We need to move into space and find another planet to live on or we will cease to exist. There is no other option. We either move to space, or we stagnate and die off. Besides we're more likely to nuke everything to hell than we are to slowly deplete our resources anyway. It's in man's nature to beat the shit out of his neighbors.
[QUOTE=TestECull;37434607]And most of it is inhospitable. That's why we're not already using it. [/QUOTE] A great deal of it was inhospitable and now there are people on every continent of the globe. Sure maybe Antarctica isn't fully self sustaining for now but it has the ability to if we tried.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;37434630]A great deal of it was inhospitable and now there are people on every continent of the globe. Sure maybe Antarctica isn't fully self sustaining for now but it has the ability to if we tried.[/QUOTE] Not really. Look at the empty land we have now. Sahara Desert. Gobi Desert. Mojave Desert. Antarctica The Arctic What do they all have in common? There's nothing there. The first three are endless seas of barren land so inhospitable animals have a tough time living there. The other two are endless seas of barren ice. All five are inhospitable wastelands not suitable for human habitation on any useable scale, and they comprise 90-odd percent of the land we're not using. The only other places it's reasonable for us to move into that we haven't already moved into are the rain forests that we sort of need to keep the atmosphere's O2 levels up. So we can't really bulldoze those either. We don't have anywhere else to go except up. Space is our future. If we as a species do not move into space we will just stagnate and kill ourselves off warring for what little remains on the then-barren Earth.
Actually the Earth could easily support all the people alive right now for a fairly long time, it's just that our resource management is laughable, the carrying capacity for earth would be around 10 billion, so we have a while to go before things get really bad.
[QUOTE=Pierrewithahat;37434979]Actually the Earth could easily support all the people alive right now for a fairly long time, it's just that our resource management is laughable, the carrying capacity for earth would be around 10 billion, so we have a while to go before things get really bad.[/QUOTE] It's also the standard of living, sure we could probably support a much higher population but we would all be living like third world refugees or something.
[QUOTE=Ardosos;37435116]It's also the standard of living, sure we could probably support a much higher population but we would all be living like third world refugees or something.[/QUOTE] No the carrying capacity of 10 billion is with our current technology and with the available land we have just now, we could comfortably support around 10 billion, then we start to consume more than we produce and then the excrement hits the rotating blades.
The rest of our lives is going to be full of ecological disasters and depressing environmental news, it's going to take a lot of work to fix the damage.
[QUOTE=SpaceGhost;37435163]The rest of our lives is going to be full of ecological disasters and depressing environmental news, it's going to take a lot of work to fix the damage.[/QUOTE] It's impossible to fix the damage at this point, change is far too slow and not widespread enough, all we're gonna be able to do is run damage control for the next few generations and try and ride out the changes and adapt to whatever happens.
Of all the places in the world, I never would have expected Scotland to have Coral reefs.
[QUOTE=_Kent_;37436634]Of all the places in the world, I never would have expected Scotland to have Coral reefs.[/QUOTE] A lot of them have only been discovered in the past decade and are hundreds of meters deep.
Scottish, robot? I didn't know we were capable of this kind of stuff. Then again, we [B]are[/B] more technologically advanced then the Irish, if only by a little.
[QUOTE=TestECull;37434607]And most of it is inhospitable. That's why we're not already using it.[/quote] You realize people live in pretty much every kind of habitat on the planet, right? The only type of place in the world that doesn't have people living in it is under the sea, and I doubt we're relatively far off from having researchers living in air-tight structures down there.
[QUOTE=TestECull;37434685]Not really. Look at the empty land we have now. Sahara Desert. Gobi Desert. Mojave Desert. Antarctica The Arctic What do they all have in common? There's nothing there. The first three are endless seas of barren land so inhospitable animals have a tough time living there. The other two are endless seas of barren ice. All five are inhospitable wastelands not suitable for human habitation on any useable scale, and they comprise 90-odd percent of the land we're not using. The only other places it's reasonable for us to move into that we haven't already moved into are the rain forests that we sort of need to keep the atmosphere's O2 levels up. So we can't really bulldoze those either. We don't have anywhere else to go except up. Space is our future. If we as a species do not move into space we will just stagnate and kill ourselves off warring for what little remains on the then-barren Earth.[/QUOTE] no actually there is plenty of hospitable land. the interior of wales is practically empty for christ's sake.
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;37439017]no actually there is plenty of hospitable land. the interior of wales is practically empty for christ's sake.[/QUOTE] We can't put city on every single square inch of land. We need farmland if we want to stay alive. [QUOTE=Paramud;37438825]You realize people live in pretty much every kind of habitat on the planet, right? The only type of place in the world that doesn't have people living in it is under the sea, and I doubt we're relatively far off from having researchers living in air-tight structures down there.[/QUOTE] Then why aren't we all moving en-masse to the areas I listed? A few hardy individuals being able to tough it out does not mean the land is suitable for mass habitation. Sure, humans [i]can[/i] live in the Sahara and on Antarctica. But that doesn't mean those places are suitable for the general population to live.
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