Autonomous Robot for the Detection of Harmful Algal Blooms

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) occur in both freshwater and saltwater throughout the United States. They are a significant threat to human, animal, and environmental health, through the release of toxins that contaminate bodies of water and water supplies nationwide. As water temperatures rise owing to climate change and ‘nutrient pollution’ continues to escalate, the incidence of HABs is expected to increase, and they are associated human illnesses, sickness and death of pets, livestock, and wildlife, and economic damages related to loss of commercial fishing and recreational revenues, decreased property values, and increased drinking-water treatment costs.

In the summer of 2014, a massive bloom of cyanobacteria (or blue-green algae) in Lake Erie resulted in the closure of drinking water facilities that served 500,000 people in Toledo, OH. Nationwide, cyanotoxins have been implicated in human and animal illness in at least 43 states.

Though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and other governmental organizations have large-scale efforts in place to monitor and forecast HABs, reliable sensing platforms for detecting HABs and their harmful products are generally too expensive to be widely deployed and monitored.