SCIENCE

UPDATE
About starfish-killing robot
By Nathan & Andra

An autonomous starfish-killing robot is close

to being ready for trials on the Great Barrier
Reef, researchers say.
They are naming the robot Cotsbot. The purpose
of the Cotsbot is to kill the crown-of-thorns
starfish.

Crown-of-thorns starfish have been described as a

significant threat to coral. The Cotsbot robot, which has
a vision system, is designed to seek out starfish and
give them a lethal injection.
After it eradicates the bulk of starfish in a given
area, human divers can move in and mop up the
survivors.

Field trials of the robot have begun in Moreton Bay in Brisbane

to refine its navigation system, Queensland University of
Technology researcher Matthew Dunbabin told the BBC.
There are no crown-of-thorns starfish in Moreton Bay but once
the navigation has been refined, the robot will be unleashed on the
reef.
"Later this month we begin deploying the robot in the Great
Barrier Reef to evaluate our state-of-the-art vision-based crown-ofthorns starfish (COTS) detection system," he said.

"Over the next five months we plan to progressively

increase the level of autonomy the robot is allowed,
leading to autonomous detection and injection of the
starfish."
The technology has two key components - an image
recognition system and the robot submersible.
"The core of the detection is a state-of-the-art computer
vision and machine learning system," Mr Dunbabin said.
"This system has been trained to recognise COTS [crownof-thorns starfish] from among a vast range of corals using
thousands of still images of the reef and videos taken by
COTS-eradicating divers."
Since the 1960s, the movement of nutrients from the land
into the sea has meant that starfish numbers are growing

questions

1. What is the robot called?

A. Cotsbot robot

2. What kind of starfish is dangerous to

coral?
A. Crown-Of-Thorns starfish
3.Where did the field test started?
A. Moreton Bay in Brisbane

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