NMI hosts underwater robotics building workshop

It happened under the radar but the CNMI played host last week to the first underwater robotics workshop in the world.

A group of marine experts made their way to the CNMI to conduct the first underwater robotics workshop in the world, called Marine Ecology Via Remote Observation Workshop, where they taught facilitators and students how to build remotely operate vehicles (ROVs, also known as underwater drones or underwater robots).

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Pew Charitable Trust funded the $15,000 workshop with the intent to teach facilitators how to construct an ROV and how to teach others to build one.

According to OpenROV chief ecologist and CEO of Blackbeard Biologic Andrew Thaler, the vision of the program is to have the expertise stay on island even when he and his team are long gone.

The Friends of The Marianas Trench’s Lauri Peterka said the eight facilitators who were chosen to take part in the workshop were from all sectors in the community like non-profit, government, and education.

The facilitators then worked with 18 students selected from high school level and college/trade school level.

“It was about making sure that we had total community buy-in. We wanted to have every element of the community,” Peterka said.

On the final day of the workshop, April 22, the students and facilitators were brought to the Smiling Cove Marina to test run the ROVs they built.

At the marina, the students, facilitators, and the recipients of the robots were able to take underwater photos and learn the controls of the ROVs.

The robots built during the workshop have been given permanent homes in different sectors of the community. The recipients of the nine ROVs were the Micronesian Islands Nature Alliance with Saipan Southern High School, Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality with Northern Marianas College, Okeanos Sustainable Sea Transport LTD., Northern Marianas Trades Institute, and Underwater World Guam with University of Guam.

According to Peterka, the recipients of the ROVs were chosen on the judgment that the robots would be utilized, accessible to the community, and not just stored away in a shelf.

The ROVs can dive up to 100 meters, carry high-definition cameras, detect temperatures, and detect depth.

Peterka said the CNMI was chosen to host the workshop because there are a lot of marine research opportunities in CNMI.