The Use of Robots in Aquatic Biomonitoring with Special Focus on Biohybrid Entities

Aquatic monitoring is an essential part of battling the rising ecological crisis. Classical methods involving extensive sampling and sensor measurements are precise, however, time and money consuming. For these reasons, they are unsuitable for long-term continuous data collection. With the increasing water pollution, there is a need to monitor the environment in new, more efficient ways over a long period of time. Project Robocoenosis introduces a novel concept of autonomous, long-term aquatic monitoring with the use of biohybrids. By linking technological parts with living organisms, a more well-balanced information on the state of the environment can be obtained. This will be done by using organisms such as mussels and Daphnia as live biosensors and combining them with low-power robotics. The autonomous biohybrid entity will use Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) as a natural power source through electricity harvesting. The fields of operation are focused on various Austrian lakes including the lakes Lake Hallstatt and Lake Millstatt in the Alpine Region as well as Lake Neusiedler.