(Dagbladet): During a month-long expedition across the Atlantic – via Ascension Island and Brazil – should the 25 year old Christine Spiten get the opportunity to test the prototype of an underwater drone for the consumer market.
– It is a tool that allows you to see underwater. Then you can, for example, standing on the shore and get pictures and video of the drone finds in the deep ocean. So far drone can go down to 100 meters, and it is deeper than divers can, says Spiten.
She is project engineer, co-founder and co-owner of BluEye Robotics AS, which develops underwater drones for the consumer.
Marin littering and health
Spiten is one of 14 women as if a button week set sail from Dakar in Senegal. The journey goes across the Atlantic. All aboard the 72-foot long sailboat Sea Dragon have their special fields and projects. She says that marine biologists, engineers, physicians and sailors are among those who will participate in the expedition, and that everyone has the same overall objective.
– The goal is to examine the relationship between marine litter and health. We have such a surface trawl laggards boat when we are out at sea, and with it we gather up everything that gets in our way. Some types of plastic – such as you find in a regular soda bottle – it takes up to 450 years to break down, says Spiten.
She is excited to learn of the other disciplines that will participate in the expedition, but dread too little to see what amounts plastic drifting at sea. Along the way they go ashore on Ascension Island, the world’s third most distant island, where she hopes to be able to update the blog she runs – Devocean – with photos and video from undervannsdronen.
Nina Jensen, Secretary General of WWF, seems drone has an interesting potential.
– It can provide valuable visual material and film footage of what goes on under the surface. We must do something about all human activities that put pressure on the sea, such as oil exploration, mining, fishing, littering and emissions, says Jensen.
– Important that people know
Spiten and Jensen thinks it is important to educate people about the situation of the world’s oceans today. Spiten highlights biodiversity as an example of why: there are more species in the ocean than in the rainforest, but much of this is at risk if nothing is done to reduce emissions and littering.
– Only 15 percent of the trash in the sea due to land, while 15 percent drifting at sea. 70 percent, we can not see because it has ended up at the bottom of the sea. An underwater drone will make both researchers and consumers can see how the sea affected. It should be noted that this is just one of the uses for drone. It gives us eyes under water, and then it’s just curiosity that sets limits, says Spiten.
Jensen is also concerned about the situation, but emphasizes that the oceans biggest problems are not littering:
– Life in the sea has been halved in just over 40 years. A considerable effort must be made to do something about this, but the main threat is climate change and ocean acidification. This is not something a drone can dissolve in.
Spiten says that drone in many ways will replace a diver, because it can go deeper and get to the places that are difficult to reach. In addition, the user will have the opportunity to share a videoav the drone seen. Risk can also be reduced if one dangerous rescue mission submit a drone to find missing people, instead of risking rescue crew’s lives.
Do not put the blame on someone
She says that she did not join the expedition to get a chance to put the blame on anyone, but to get an opportunity to educate.
– I have not agreed to join this expedition because I’m going to walk around with a finger and tell people what they do wrong. But I think it is important to make people aware of the situation and that they have a choice. Additionally, this can help to take up the dialogue with the authorities, who can put into action and make it easier for consumers to identify and steer clear of products.
Jensen says drones and other technology is essential to combat climate change and pollution, but stressed that one can not expect that technology will be the solution.
– Not any technology can be the solution to all problems. We can not wait, for we must do what it takes to here and now. One sees new proposals for solutions every day, but it’s very easy for politicians to push technology ahead of him rather than to do what one must do, says Jensen. She emphasizes that she is in favor of the new technology, but that one should not believe that it can solve all problems.
Next drone on the market in 2016
Undervannsdronen be tested in the various conditions expedition offers, and the next prototype comes on the market in the autumn of 2016. The lessons learned from this expedition will be used in the development of the forthcoming prototype.
The drone to be used at this time measures about 50 x 50 cm, but the next prototype will be a third of this. In addition, the drone developers to make it cheaper and more stable, but also wireless. Such a drone could go even deeper than the current drone.
Along with four others have Spiten worked with the idea to undervannsdronen since autumn 2014, but it was not until summer 2015 that the company BluEye Robotics AS was established.
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