Gastro cameras make waves for reef research

Italian and Queensland scientists are putting military and industrial technology underwater to improve reef research and revolutionise marine data collection.

They are building plug-and-play electronic sensor pods — energy efficient scientific monitors about the size of two matchboxes, that can receive directions and transmit environmental data from the seabed to the air via radio signals.

Most underwater sensors are hardwired to research boats or buoys to transfer data because radio transfer has used a lot of power, is expensive and geographically restrictive, which usually limits its use to nuclear submarines.

Associate Professor Ron Johnstone, Coordinator of the Coastal Resource Management Unit within UQ’s Centre for Marine Studies, said the new pods would measure light, temperature, water turbidity and flow, coral pigmentation and potentially other processes such as biofilm growth.

“These sensor pods will sit on coral, in seagrass, wherever you want them,” Associate Professor Johnstone said.

“We can not only get data from them but we’ll be able to talk to them and tell them when to switch on and when to switch off, to increase their sampling rate or to switch from oxygen to light.

“For example we’ll be able to sit and look at a coral and see when the pigmentation has reached a certain level, hence warn us that coral bleaching is occurring or imminent.

“This technology has applications well beyond marine monitoring and has already been requested by our industry partners.”

UQ is leading the three-year pod project called Smart Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Technologies (SEMAT).

It is a collaborative project for Milan Polytechnic University, Torino Wireless Foundation, James Cook University, the Danish Hydraulics Group and the Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation.

Italian engineers from Milan and Torino are building the sensor systems while Queenslanders are providing the scientific and application know-how.

Thirty-two representatives from science, business groups and venture capital organisations in Italy, attended a demonstration of the prototypes at the UQ Moreton Bay Research Station last week.

Associate Professor Johnstone said traditional underwater monitoring had limited the accuracy of environmental predictions for iconic ecosystems such as the Great Barrier Reef and Moreton Bay.

He said the SEMAT pods would be cheaper, more accurate and flexible and offer higher resolution monitoring.

“We’re trying to take these new and emergent technologies that industry and the military have been applying, such as the gastric camera, and package them into a smart system for underwater use.

“It will fundamentally alter how we assess the environment and, critically, how we can then seek to manage our activities that affect it.

“The real innovation is partly in the packaging but mostly in how they’ll behave underwater and how they will interact as a system under user control.

“These are all real sophisticated pieces of kit but the real step forward is in the use of radio frequencies underwater and the much faster data transmission rates this provides.”

So far the project has been funded by $850,000 from the Italian collaborators.

Associate Professor Johnstone said sensor prototypes had worked well in tests but the group has applied for a $1.3 million Smart State grant to build and test a range of sensor configurations.

Apart from the scientific value, he said it was also a chance for Italy and Queensland to become closer business partners.

Italian joint-degree PhD students Umberto Cella and Davide Caputo from the Polytechnic University of Milan are also working on the project.

MEDIA: Associate Professor Johnstone (0419 122 184, rnje@uq.edud.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (07 3365 2619)