In context
As global food demand rises, fishery resources offer a vital supply, yet traditional methods face environmental and labor constraints. By 2023, the push for fishery modernization, including China's target to mechanize over 50% of aquaculture by 2025, highlighted the need for intelligent underwater robotics, making this review timely.
What was reported
The review, from Zhejiang University, systematically summarizes underwater robot applications in fishery from 2007 to 2021, categorizing them into environmental monitoring and behavior surveillance, visual identification and capture, and habitat maintenance. It covers both marine and freshwater settings, noting representative systems like the REMUS-100 AUV for tracking marine animals, the CWolf AUV for water quality monitoring, and biomimetic robots like SoFi for non-intrusive observation.
Key technologies are analyzed in four areas: structural design and shape optimization, underwater machine vision and image enhancement, motion planning, and environment information acquisition and transmission. The review identifies challenges such as limited payload, disturbance to aquatic life, and the trade-off between sensing precision and economic viability.
For capture applications, it outlines three stages of vision systems: open-loop control from static images, visual servoing with continuous feedback, and self-learning intelligent systems. Current capture robots primarily target high-value species like sea cucumbers and abalones, using methods from enveloping to suction, but fully autonomous capture remains rare.
"The development of fishery underwater robots has matured, and the time is ripe for advancing intelligent equipment to empower future marine ranching and smart fisheries."
Why it mattered
This review provided a structured reference for researchers and engineers, identifying gaps and future directions for dedicated fishery robots. It underscored the potential for underwater robots to transform aquaculture through automation, aligning with broader trends in smart agriculture and marine resource sustainability.
Source: 《机器人》期刊 (robot.sia.cn) · Published 2023-03-06 · “水下机器人在渔业中的应用现状与关键技术综述”