EP 927 Marine Robots Give Us New Look at Ocean Life

There’s so much that we don’t know about the life, topography and potential of our oceans since only 25 percent of these bodies of water have been mapped in any significant way.  Given that oceans account for 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, we have a long way to go in determining the richness of the ocean and what it can mean to humans in helping to sustain our expanding food, energy and resource needs.  Our guest, James Bellingham, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy and the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of exploration robotics and he is also the author of “How Are Marine Robots Shaping Our Future?”  A contributor on the book is Claudia Geib.  In it he describes the work of these autonomous underwater vehicles and how they are fast changing how humans explore and work in the ocean.  It’s a competitive environment worldwide as these robots race to collect data vital for climate science, offshore energy, aquaculture and business and military applications.  It’s an important conversation about a little discussed advance in science and has implications for our efforts to better understand humans’ prospects in deep space.

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