The uOne: What It Can Do For the Environment

Our ability to better harness the enormous potential and riches of the world’s oceans cannot be done in an ecological vacuum. The Earth is already at dire peril from a host of different environmental ills: global warming and climate change, widespread deforestation and desertification, not to mention species loss, biodiversity loss and massive pollution throughout the planet. The oceans, particularly tropical oceans, are suffering as much from such species and biodiversity loss and pollution as any other part of the biosphere — if not even more so. Oceanic ‘dead zones,’ ‘red tides,’ and micro-plastic garbage patches the size of Texas are just a few examples.

So, whether it be exploration of the seabed for oil and natural gas exploration or the mining of minerals, or conducting marine businesses such as wind farms or aquaculture, any marine-related wealth creation must be conducted with all environmental factors and sustainability taken into serious account. Anything less will be a disaster for the oceans.

That is why we at uWare are so excited about our exceptional autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), uOne. We know just how many ways the uOne will be able to contribute to the ecological integrity and proper, sustainable management of the world’s oceans. This article will explore some of them.

Understanding the Oceans

To know the oceans better, is to be able to protect them more wisely and properly. The US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has stated that AUVs offer excellent options for ocean-based research, including the mapping of the ocean floor and entire regions of the deep seas that were hitherto almost impossible to survey. The fact that AUVs are scalable or modular (as is the case with our uOne AUV) means that researchers can choose which sensors to attach to them depending on the given research objectives.

AUVs are also mostly unimpeded by bad weather and other meteorological factors that often hinder ocean research undertaken by other vessels, including remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs). Furthermore, AUVs such as uWare’s uOne are uniquely adapted to explore the harshest oceanic environments, whether those beneath polar ice or, in the future, those at the world’s deepest hydrothermal vents.

Understanding these extreme marine environments is to better understand everything from oceanic currents to the exact age of polar ice and even the age of the ocean floor itself, all of which are essential in the complex chronology-focused studies of global warming and changes in climate, for example.

Environmental Monitoring Like Never Before

An AUV such as uOne can do so much more to monitor and help analyse the depths and ecosystems of the marine world. Just a few of these include:

• Sampling and tracking of marine species, whether mammal, fish or invertebrate, and particularly endangered species, in order to extrapolate and attain more accurate numbers on species and their diversity, as well as habitat spread;
• More exacting and precise monitoring and sampling of stressed marine environments, including dead zones, red tides, the ‘gyres’ that comprise the oceanic plastic garbage patches, and other marine habitats under severe stress or at risk of ecological stress;
• Improved and more exacting water quality monitoring (sample collecting), including at lower depths and in more remote areas, and which would encompass data on marine pollution, ocean acidification, mercury levels, temperature levels relative to historic mean averages, and other, related impacts on the marine environment;
• Multi-frequency acoustic imaging that can gauge the impacts of trawling on deep-water coral mounds and highly fragile coral ecosystems;
• Velocity measurements of active submarine flows (deep-water currents), which is an important aspect in the study of the ocean’s salinity (salt content), among other factors;
• Cost-effective, easily rendered research in fields such as marine biodiversity could be particularly helpful to the economic and social development of developing countries, and in particular small island developing countries and very poor coastal countries (LLDCs);
• The provision of autonomous solid plastic recovery and waste detection from the oceans, which would include the real-time analysis of the quantity and localisation of plastics, including in ‘gyres;’ and
• For aquaculture, an improved way to control water quality in fish farms, as well as monitor nets and fish inventory and health.

You just need to look at the impressive array of functions (as listed on our website) that our uOne technology can achieve to see how many of them have an environmental scope or attribution:

• Endangered zones monitoring
• Pollution detection v Searching and recovering
• Hulls, equipment and infrastructure inspection v Species surveys v Scientific analysis
• Fish farms, cable and pipeline surveillance
• Cartography and exploration
• Underwater archaeology

In fact, every one of the above projects would have an environmental ‘angle’ to them, whether directly or indirectly. For example, how can you lay down deep-bed telecommunications cables without environmental impacts? Ditto the ability to run a sustainable, healthy fish farm. Even deep-sea search and recovery missions undertaken by a uOne, in whatever ocean or sea, would need to take environmental aspects and impacts into due consideration.

Assessing Marine Business Risks

It’s foolhardy to think that countries and corporations would not want to explore and (for want of a better word) exploit the immense resource wealth and other riches contained within the world’s oceans. However, any such development of the oceans and its resources must be done sustainably. That is why the use of the word ‘exploit’ is so problematic — the word implies that which is one-sided and only benefits wealth creation and not the natural marine environment. As with sustainable development on land, so too development out at sea should only benefit the financial bottom line if it also respects and preserves natural systems.

One way for marine-focused businesses to ensure that they meet their sustainability obligations is to conduct comprehensive risk assessments that take ecological considerations into thorough account at all times. Environmental monitoring as part of environmental risk assessments are an integral part of that process. The offshore oil and gas industry is a case in point. As drilling for hydrocarbon-based energy goes ever deeper into the ocean and accesses remote, fragile marine ecosystems such as those of the Arctic, so too do potential adverse impacts on the environment. Hence the industry’s increased adherence to Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM).

And what better way to analyse potential environmental impacts on fragile or deep, remote marine environments than an AUV such as uOne?

A uOne environmental survey could explore any number of environmental impacts posed by an offshore oil or gas venture, ranging from the effects to marine organisms from drilling mud, to the actual impacts of produced water discharges and accidental hydrocarbon spills. Produced water, which is a complex and toxic mixture of inorganic and organic compounds that can include heavy metals, hydrocarbons, radionuclides and treating chemicals, is an especially important example of the type of aspects (discharges or outputs) that could be ably analysed with the use of an AUV. This is especially relevant when one considers that the rate of produced water generated by an oil rig can be up to ten times more than the oil pumped.

We at uWare Robotics recognize and fully acknowledge the importance of the oceans for the sustainable future of humanity. We realized that what was needed was underwater technology that could assist in easier, faster and safer ways for humans to interact with oceans and their vast resources. That is why we are so proud to launch our robotic AUV for underwater research and marine management, the uOne.

Our AUV, embedded with artificial intelligence (AI) and applying cuttingedge robotics, offers the cost-effective autonomy, reliability and versatility that countries, corporations, NGOs, and communities will need in order to harness the immense wealth and potential of the oceans without compromising marine ecosystems and their ecological integrity.

Ultimately, the wonderful possibilities that the ‘Blue Economy’ can offer the world are immense. However, they must be tempered by ecological concerns. Our AUV, the one and only uOne, will help us to be a part of a sustainable, ecologically viable marine future.