Technology and Education to Address Natural Resource Management Challenges

Enhancing Water Management with Robotics

Minnesota is part of the Great Lakes region, which contains almost 85 percent of the freshwater resources in North America. These resources are a significant drinking water supply for millions and carry immense environmental, cultural and economic significance. However, the region faces significant threats to water quality and ecosystem functioning, such as contamination and invasive species.

Managing these threats depends on coordinated efforts across local governments, state agencies, Tribes and community partners. However, limited funding and personnel, along with the need to monitor remote and sometimes unsafe locations, can lead to gaps in data collection and inconsistent monitoring.

In their first Impact Goal project, “Automating and Informing Local Water Resource Management,” this team assessed and piloted the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) across Minnesota to help address these challenges.

This project builds on that work by increasing managers’ capacity to use data collected from robotic systems in real-world water management decisions, particularly for aquatic invasive species detection and water quality monitoring.

Project Goals

• Design and test a robotic AIS detection process and protocol
• Integrate outputs from robotic monitoring into modeling and decision support frameworks
• Develop outreach and education materials to support partners
• Create and test a reusable assessment of public perceptions of robotic AIS detection