'Coralbots' to repair coral reefs

A team of scientists at the University of Scotland are trying to develop 'coralbots' - robots engineered to re-cement broken coral fragments with software that will 'recognize' corals. The coralbots will be small and operate in swarms with scoops and arms. If funding is successful, they could begin sea trials next year.



More:
BBC News - Underwater robots to 'repair' Scotland's coral reefs

 

Awesome! But I feel that it would be more cost effective to have someone physically go out and do this.

 

interesting concept. I dont get why they dont look at some of the technology we use for our aquariums but on a larger scale. Its no wonder the decline and raising acidification of our reefs is a huge reason of global warming, but also the amount of metal we dump into the ocean. From oil drilling, to spills, to sunken old boats. In the last 100 years us humans as a race have dumped so much metal and crap into the ocean we are seeing the affects now. Why can't they create some giant magnetic type contraption for sucking excess metals out of the ocean. Or talk to seachem to use cuprisorb on some massive level to help.

 

well if they can make it fully automated, figure they can have these little guys running 24/7. No downtime. cant make people do that. lol

 

Scotland reefs are 200m down.

 

awesome!thanks for sharing.

 

make one small enough to use in a home aquarium to move and glue stuff down in and you would make millions ;D

 

seriously disagree with this statement as a whole. Many countries purpously sink large ship to help spur coral reef growth. I've dived on dozens of shipwreck that are flourishing reefs.

 

Just cuz i wanted to know, it would take 70,840,870,066,173,600 gallons to even start making a dent