August 8, 2013

Scientists Build A Robot To Track Sharks



“The problem is that we’re in a boat.”

That’s part of the answer that Professor Christopher Lowe gave me when I asked him about why he needs a shark tracking robot. Lowe heads the Sharklab at California State University Long Beach. The goal of the lab is to learn more about shark behavior – why they do the things they do and in what context they do them.

The lab’s goals were made a little easier to achieve starting four years ago, when Lowe was contacted by Professor Christopher Clark from Harvey Mudd College. There, Clark directs the Lab for Autonomous and Intelligent Robotics, which focuses on applications for multi-robot systems. Clark contacted Lowe to gauge his interest in building an autonomous robot that track sharks in ways that humans simply can’t.