Nov 7 2017
Blueye Robotics, developer of Blueye Pioneer underwater drone that dives eight times deeper than the average scuba enthusiast, will launch in Australia this month. The prosumer underwater drone is suitable for ocean explorers of every type who want to discover what lies beneath the ocean, yet has the professional robustness to meet with scientific and enterprise use.
First to use the drone is Dr. Dean Miller, director for science and media with the Great Barrier Reef Legacy, who embarks on a 21-day expedition to explore the Reef’s most remote, unexplored reaches and assess the region’s declining coral reef corridor.
Blueye’s arctic-tested Pioneer underwater drone is able to dive up to 150 meters deep even in the harshest ocean conditions, and has capabilities that were previously found only in expensive professional equipment used by filmmakers, oceanographers and the military.
“This collaboration with the Great Barrier Reef Legacy offers a whole new tool for the expedition crew to unobtrusively navigate the coral reef,” says Christine Spiten, Blueye co-founder and chief global strategist, who will spend several days in Cairns, Australia, with the research team before it begins its three-week expedition. “The Blueye Pioneer is also valuable to anybody who is curious about the ocean and wants to see what lies beneath the hidden depths below us. These drones can help us uncover new information about the seas.”
The Great Barrier Reef Legacy expedition, led by Miller and John Rumney and joined by Charlie Veron, the world’s leading expert on coral reefs, as well as other leading marine scientists from a range of universities and government organisations in Australia, will help better understand the nature of the problems facing this fragile coral reef and the recent coral bleaching that scientists attribute to warming ocean temperatures.
“The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is an area that is remote, large and hard to access,” says Miller. “Researchers have been unable to fully assess what is happening to the most pristine part of the northern Great Barrier Reef, so we are looking forward to using the Blueye’s Pioneer drone to help us better understand the changing nature of this fragile ecosystem, especially on the deeper slopes where divers simply cannot access. This gives us a whole new way of understanding how the whole ecosystem has responded to heat stress, and will provide the first detailed look at deeper coral habitats.”
The Pioneer is available for pre-orders on www.blueyerobotics.com and will be shipped in Q2, 2018.