Scientists of TU Bergakademie Freiberg have developed a robot which is able to measure water and environmental parameters on inland waters. Recently, the research group has been successfully testing the swimming device for the first time on a lake in the centre of the Saxon city.
On a separate platform, the autonomous robot system carries a measuring system for the complex, locally resolved acquisition of selected water and environmental parameters. It is controlled by a base station. Both, robot and platform have now had their inaugural test drive in Freiberg. “Our first test confirms that our concept for the design of a modular platform is a good one”, explains Professor Jörg Matschullat.
The team will now use the robot during a monitoring campaign on Lake Klingenberg in Saxony. The platform will then be further equipped with sensors and sonars to enable geoscientific evaluation of water quality parameters and respiratory flows for a better understanding of limnic processes as well as 3D depth-resolved recording of inland water quality parameters.
“In the long run, data visualization by means of artificial intelligence and virtual reality should be made possible”, says coordinator Professor Yvonne Joseph. Next year, the scientists plan to take their robot with them to Brasil, where they are planning several measuring campaigns in the Amazon basin area.
Robot-assisted inland water monitoring (RoBiMo)
On 01 January 2020, the interdisciplinary junior research group RoBiMo started their work at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg on the topic of robot-assisted inland water monitoring. The project will be supported by the Free State of Saxony with resources from the European Social Fund until the end of December 2022.
Contacts:
Prof. Dr. Jörg Matschullat, Phone: 03731/39-3399
Prof. Dr. Yvonne Joseph, Phone: +49 3731 39 2146
Sebastian Pose, Phone: +49 3731 39 3252