{"id":11682,"date":"2021-05-19T11:39:44","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T10:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=11682"},"modified":"2021-05-19T11:39:44","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T10:39:44","slug":"autonomous-robots-will-change-the-fish-farming-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/autonomous-robots-will-change-the-fish-farming-industry\/11682\/","title":{"rendered":"Autonomous robots will change the fish farming industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daily net cleaning, inspection, big data, and analysis will fundamentally change fish farming. The future is closer than many might think.<\/h2>\n

At Watbots<\/a>, we love autonomous robots! Every day, we wake up thinking about how autonomous robots can change so many operations and issues and bring the fish farming industry to the next level. We have a fundamental \u2018Level up\u2019 technology that is very sustainable and will disrupt many areas in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Watbots\u2019 autonomous robots aims to solve two of the biggest environmental problems in the fish farming industry: algae growth and autonomous net inspection to prevent fish escaping.<\/p>\n

Algae growth on nets is a known and on-going challenge for marine salmon aquaculture, impacting farming operations, fish health, and welfare. Current anti-fouling coatings and the reactive removal of biofouling are ineffective, costly, unsustainable, stress the fish, and hinder optimal fish growth. What exciting and valuable problems to solve, we thought back in 2019.<\/p>\n

Can this problem be solved with autonomous robots? Nina Bl\u00f6cher at Sintef Ocean, one of the foremost researchers in algae growth in fish pens, seems to think so in her report published in August 2020, entitled: Towards cost-effective biofouling management in salmon aquaculture: a strategic outlook. The \u2018grooming of nets\u2019 is a proposed strategy for the industry, with continuous cleaning that prevents biofouling development. It was as if Watbots had ordered this report, which was in complete alignment with our view. When we asked Bl\u00f6cher to join our Steering Committee for developing our autonomous robots, she accepted with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

Why has this not been done before?<\/h3>\n

The main challenge stems from the fact that you have to rethink the robot\u2019s energy use completely; it has to be \u2018tetherless\u2019, which means it has to be fully autonomous. We therefore eliminated joysticks, thrusters, and human interaction from the robots, which must be able to navigate based on sensor data only, all by themselves. That means utilising machine learning, 3D vision analysis, and Artificial Intelligence. That got our engineers and partners really excited! And while it is by no means easy, it is what we do and it is a worthy and exciting problem to solve!<\/p>\n

Watbots\u2019 business model is a pure rental model, with no upfront or installation costs, and one robot is dedicated to each fish pen. The robots will autonomously clean the net each day, and this roundtrip in the net opens up a new world of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) analysis.<\/p>\n

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The robots have a lot of sensors. Mapping about 8,000m2 on the largest 200m circumference farms at 0.01mm resolution will generate an enormous amount of valuable data. The robots will document the nets each day, measuring all trends and automatically identifying and reporting all breakages and holes using AI.<\/p>\n

The direct benefits to the farmers are:<\/p>\n