City University marine biologist Katherine Lam King-yiu, 33, is using a swimming robot to study corals at Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park. She now hopes to see at least one more robot put to work along other parts of the Hong Kong coastline.
It's a small, swimming robot. Its technical name is a remote operating vehicle, or ROV, and we use it to observe coral and coral fish in Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park. We believe this is the first time something like this has been used anywhere for observation in shallow coral areas.
We developed it in collaboration with our electronic engineering department and it cost about $200,000 to build. It measures 40cm by 30cm and effectively it's a small swimming vehicle which examines the seabed.
It connects via an umbilical cord to the land so we can drive the robot while it swims and records a video. We get to see real-time images on the shore on a display unit in the laboratory.
The robot enables us to record the coral density, the health of the coral and how it looks and whether it is damaged.
We also have other equipment in use such as underwater surveillance cameras.
Using this sophisticated equipment, we can maintain 24-hour surveillance of the coral areas and see what the fish and invertebrates are doing.
