Sponsor: National Science Foundation (ENG/EECS Division)
Aerial view of an oil spill (image credit: BP)
Although the spewing of crude oil has been stopped, the oil that already leaked into the Gulf of Mexico is expected to impact the environment, ecosystem and local economy for years to come. Monitoring and tracking the oil plume is critical for cleanup efforts, beach closure warnings, protection of sensitive areas, and understanding of the spill’s environmental and ecological impacts. With the pressing need from the Gulf crisis, this RAPID project aims to provide an efficient and economical technology for detecting and tracking the oil spill by leveraging ongoing work on robotic fish development at MSU and focusing on a few key technological areas, so that robotic fish equipped with crude oil sensors can operate reliably in rough environments like the Gulf.