Equipped with a high-tech vision system which allows it to ‘see’ underwater, and operated using a smart tablet, RangerBot is the low-cost, autonomous robot concept that won the 2016 Google Impact Challenge People’s Choice prize, enabling QUT roboticists to develop innovative robotics technology into a real-life reef protector.
Launching RangerBot at Townsville’s Reef HQ Aquarium today, QUT Professor Matthew Dunbabin said after almost two years of research, development and testing, RangerBot’s industry-leading technology is now ready to be put through its paces by those working to monitor and protect the Reef.
This ‘Swiss army knife’-style robo reef protector, the RangerBot Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, will provide reef managers, researchers and community groups extra ‘hands and eyes’ in the water.