Researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) are working on a $1 million project funded by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the multi-stakeholder National Robotics Initiative 2.0. The four-year effort is designed to reduce the loss rate of farmed mollusks using drones. Creating new opportunities for oyster and mollusk farming.
What is a drone?
Specifically, drones will be used to enhance quality monitoring in areas that are difficult to access or dangerous for humans. This is a step toward helping the North Carolina mollusk farming industry grow sustainably, reaching a value of $100 million by 2030.
Data is increasingly playing a vital role in the decision-making process, the key to unlocking the potential for sustainable development of the aquaculture industry in general and mollusks in particular.
Siera Young, an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (DBAE) at NCSU, who led the project, said water quality is a critical factor in ensuring food safety and profitability for shellfish producers. Bacteria and other contaminants carried into the ocean by surface rainwater disrupt the harvest, causing farmers to lose up to 25% of their income each year. ”We want to automate water quality testing and sampling, and the data collected will minimize losses in the oyster and mollusk farming industry,” said Professor Young.
New model to help oyster farmers minimize losses
The professor and his colleagues will build a computer model that can accurately predict which areas are becoming hot spots for infection based on many water quality parameters. Including DO (dissolved oxygen concentration, pH, …) by robots using sensor probes to measure and send samples for analysis to the laboratory.
In addition, the team is also looking to deploy USVs (unmanned surface vehicles) to communicate and work with Drones. For example, Drones will perform reconnaissance missions to notify USVs of unsafe areas, and USVs can become landing sites for Drones, …
Test plan and results farewell
The team plans to test the system in several lakes in North Carolina and at NCSU’s Marine Aquaculture Research Center (MARC) in Carteret County. Full-scale trials will then be conducted in commercial oyster farms.
The drone fleet is designed not only to provide water quality data for real-time management decisions, but also to improve the efficiency of predicting bacterial load. The long-term goal of this data and the robotic tool is to help oyster farmers reduce losses due to mollusk deaths or unexpected harvest stoppages.
Source: Vietnam Marine Aquaculture Association
