[Coral-List] ICRS 2020 Call For Abstracts: How can autonomous data-driven robotics improve cost effectiveness and spatial/temporal scaling of reef assessments?

[Joshua Levy]

We are very excited to invite you to submit an abstract for an oral or poster presentation at ICRS 2020 in the Theme 7 session: How can autonomous data-driven robotics be used to improve cost effectiveness and spatial/temporal scaling of reef assessments?

We expect a broad audience for the Autonomous Robotics session. This session will bring biologists, engineers, conservation practitioners, modelers and students together to gain novel insights in the current state, and guide future development of autonomous sensor capabilities and applications. With the majority of coral reefs threatened and impacted by global change worldwide, the studies presented in this session have broad applicability and relevancy at local, national and international levels.


Abstracts can be submitted online until 1 September 2019. All information about this call and how to submit your abstract can be found here: http://www.icrs2020.de/program/call-for-abstracts/ <http://www.icrs2020.de/program/call-for-abstracts/>

Session description:

Traditionally, coral research and ecosystem monitoring activities involve the use of conventional diver surveys for shallow reef systems, and research ships with submersible vehicles for mesophotic and deep reefs.  High costs of diver and ship operations, and their inability to support long-term persistent observations due to endurance constraints, weather limitations, and diver safety, emphasize the need for more cost-efficient and scalable alternatives. To address the monetary and time challenges of reef research and monitoring, we need to reduce the cost of obtaining data at biologically relevant spatial and temporal scales. Proposed solutions include using unmanned systems, data fusion, analytics, and visualization techniques to collect and process data for use by both science and conservation communities. Unmanned technologies have the ability to collect data over large areas at a low personnel and monetary cost, and disseminate data in near real time, making them increasingly useful assets for reef management. This session will focus on emerging technologies to support coral research and ecosystem monitoring with improved operational scale, coverage, resolution, and cost-efficiency. The session will assess robotic and software innovations, data fusion/processing, visualization techniques, intelligent data use for reef studies, and how to accelerate their adoption by ocean scientists and ecosystem managers. Session topics may include effective applications of innovative robotic survey, monitoring, mapping, and interactive research platforms, such as autonomous aerial, surface, and underwater vehicles, and other remote sensing methodologies. Also of interest are adaptive survey techniques involving analytical decision support, cross-platform coordination and communication, and how intelligent data use can increase operational efficiency of robotic marine surveys.

Thanks, 

Josh Levy
Dr. Phil McGillivary
Dr. Carlie Weiner
Dr. Ved Chirayath