Researchers at Clarkson University are hoping to use Robotic Sensor Technology to track oil spills. James S. Bonner and Temitope O. Ojo, researchers at the university, have acquired an autonomous underwater vehicle to facilitate their research.
Clarkson University environmental science and engineering graduate student Elysia Taylor and civil and environmental engineering graduate student James Paley complete final system checks on the new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) EcoMapper prior to a test deployment.
The sensors on the AUV can detect and track plumes of hydrocarbon after an oil spill has occurred. The instrument was obtained by using a $200,000 MRI-RAPID grant from the National Science Foundation for their research. The Rapid Response Research or RAPID initiative of the National Science Foundation is a special grant particularly aimed at unusual situations where a well-timed response is indispensable to achieving research objectives.
The topic of their research is “Development of Surface and Submerged Oil Detector using Fluorescence and Laser Light Scattering." James Bonner is the Shipley Center for Innovation fellow and a professor of civil & environmental engineering, while Ojo is a research assistant professor of civil & environmental engineering.
Bonner said that the AUV deploys water quality sensors for measuring dissolved oxygen, conductivity, temperature, turbidity and hydrocarbon in addition to sensors for navigation -Doppler velocity log, GPS and compass. In the future, an expanded payload will accommodate sonar, as well as fluorescence and laser light scattering sensors being developed here at Clarkson he said.
A series of experiments are now being carried out by Bonner who is a leading expert in oil spill response and countermeasures research. Ojo has been observing the evolution of this type technology over the last decade. This acquisition will tremendously increase Their capacity to conduct scientific surveys in aquatic system he said.