When you buy through links on our site , we may bring in an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it work .
A yellow robot named " ECHO " is helping scientists in Antarctica to keep tabs on some of the continent ’s penguin occupier .
AtAntarctica ’s Atka Bay , researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ( WHOI ) are monitor a dependency of about 20,000 emperor penguins ( Aptenodytes forsteri)with the help of a intercrossed rover that ’s partly sovereign and partly remote - control .
ECHO-Rover approaches an emperor penguin colony in Atka Bay, Antarctica.
The four - wheeled automaton is part of a 30 - yr - foresightful WHOI platform that launched in 2017 , called " supervise the health of the Antarctic leatherneck ecosystem using the emperor butterfly penguin as a lookout , " or MARE for short . The MARE task monitor emperor moth penguins and use them as indicators of overall ecosystem health in Antarctica . The project documents how well the penguin adapt to mood change and its impact on the teemingness and distribution of the fish they eat on , WHOI representativessaid in a statement
ECHO ’s purpose is to remove any human presence from penguin surveys , as counting and cataloging thousands of bird is prison term - consuming and can accent the beast , according to WHOI .
Related : Here ’s why a new penguin colony in Antarctica is cause for care
ECHO sneaking up on an emperor penguin.
To make ECHO the perfect penguin monitoring vehicle , scientists equipped the 3 - foot - tall ( 0.9 m ) rover with lidar ( light detection and ranging ) and GPS technology to navigate autonomously . ECHO carry sensors that help researchers supervise the penguin colony ’s numbers and dog individuals ' movement and behavior .
For model , a radio oftenness identification ( RFID ) antenna scans tiny RFID tatter that WHOI investigator implanted in penguin wench when the youngsters were about five months old . Since the MARE projection commence , research worker have tagged around 300 penguin chicks each year , according to WHOI . Once ECHO is in range of a penguin ’s RFID tag — about 34 inch ( 86 centimeters ) away — the robot can recollect information about overall fitness and upbringing status , as well as oceanographic information from when the penguin was in the sea . A 360 - degree camera enables scientist to identify individual penguins that ECHO encounter , and GPS data reveals the extent of the penguins ' dispersion and their habitat hotspots .
researcher at WHOI modified ECHO from a Husky golem kit created by the automaton - manufacturing company Clearpath Robotics . The robotics company present WHOI the Husky outfit in 2020 , Clearpath interpreter tell in astatement . Prior to ECHO , MARES project datum was collected using handheld RFID scanners and human observations .
The datum reverberation collects is transmitted over WI - FI to the Single Penguin Observation and Tracking Observatory ( SPOT ) research sum . Located near the German Antarctic inquiry base Neumayer Station III , SPOT can also express out penguin observations , using 16 mellow - resolution cameras capable of pinpointing individual penguin within the colony , according to WHOI .
– Why are n’t there icy bears in Antarctica ?
– When did Antarctica become a continent ?
– submersed volcano in Antarctica triggers 85,000 earthquakes
emperor butterfly penguins have no natural predators in Antarctica , so they are secure study subjects for scientists look to understand how fauna are affected by ecosystem variation caused byclimate change .
However , the birds ' survival in a warming world is uncertain . A study published in 2021 in the journalGlobal Change Biologyreported that the rapid decline of Antarctica ’s ice could cause that emperor penguins to become " quasi - nonextant " by 2100 — meaning that although there might still be case-by-case penguin alive , the species as a whole would be doomed to quenching .
" Biodiversity in the Southern Ocean is so small , compare to more moderate regions of the human beings , that losing any species there is kind of devastating , " Daniel Zitterbart , an associate scientist at WHOI , toldCNN .
WHOI researchers plan to extend ECHO ’s data collection efforts to let in the penguin ' foraging and reproductive behaviors , as well as what pass off inside a penguin powwow — a societal behavior in which the colony huddles together to abide quick and conserve energy . To infiltrate the penguin huddle , researchers plan to put ECHO inside a 3D - printed replica of a block of ice rink . ECHO and its icy camouflage would then be placed in the way of a forming huddle , which typically happens in winter after the gentility season , while the male Bronx cheer are dwell their egg . This camouflage would enable ECHO to collect penguin datum while the birds are in penny-pinching impinging with each other , according to WHOI .
Originally published on Live Science .
