DocuScooter: A Novel Robotics Platform for Marine Citizen Science.

Abstract

Conservation and monitoring of marine systems and large-scale underwater data acquisition are too demanding for single researchers. The exploitation of citizen science and the development of new technology can significantly facilitate these actions. In this work a novel system that allows scuba divers to collect data during their leisure activity is presented. It consists of a modular robotics system connected with a variable number of heterogeneous payloads, directly manageable through a tablet, to equip an underwater scooter. After the mission, the user can upload the data on an appropriate web server and launch a 3D reconstruction process, providing ad-hoc outputs for different applications. Copyright © 2017 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE).