This robot is trained to visually identify Crown of Thorns Starfish and poison them. Interesting tech it maps the area and constantly keeps learning because the ocean changes.
It has enough poison to kill 200 starfish in one mission of 4 to 8 hours hunting. The plan is to make them affordable to have 100's to 1000's hunting the great barrier reef.
so it begins
That has bad sci-fi movie written all over it.
Well that's something useful for the coral barrier that's whittling more and more. It's not scary to me at all because it's just a dumb robot programmed to do that. I could even program a something to scan for human beings and, when recognized, pull the trigger on a weapon. But that doesen't make such a machine scary because can't get more dangerous than it actually is.
Well I wouldnt want to be snorkling near one thats for sure. Could be Queensland visitor information. Dont wear bathing suits with starfish decals :)
Im not sure if the poisonous bile salts are toxic to humans. Common sense would say there not, still people make bad choices.
Why would you want to kill Starfish?
Its a poisonous species that eats coral and has no predator to keep population in check. I read its blamed for half the reefs destruction over the last three decades.
High CO2 levels in the ocean can dissolve coral as well so the reef is in danger from global warming as well.
Humans pollute and destroy, we get away with it and make money.
Starfish pollute and destroy, they get exterminated.
Excuse my cynical statement though. Especially since I doubt making robots is a foolproof solution against sentient beings or even Starfish. But we will have to see.
We've fucked with nature so much humanity is forcing itself into a position where we can't be hands off. It's kind of scary tbh
The star fish were brought in to Australia in the belly of big freight ships they have really fucked shit up.
I hope this works.
This is a clever use of technology and I'm not against it. Provided the data of each drone can be checked on to make sure the identification algorithm stays within spec....
but robot santa does over 50 mega checks a second and he still fucks shit up
Article says they are native to the reef.
HMM My bad