Carp Tracking
From RSN
The common carp is an invasive species of fish which poses a significant threat across the Midwest. This species pollutes lakes by uprooting plants and releasing large quantities of harmful nutrients while bottom-feeding. It is important to track and control the species. Sorensen lab at the University of Minnesota has discovered that when carp form huge shoals they can be netted and removed with very high efficiency. However, finding and controlling these aggregations from conventional boats is expensive and nearly impossible.
We have recently started a collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation to build a network of robotic devices which can be used for locating and tracking radio-tagged carp. The project brings together roboticists, computer systems experts, mathematicians as well as fish biologists to tackle many challenging research problems ranging from optimal search and active tracking with multiple robots to energy-efficient operation as well as understanding fish behavior. Stay tuned for more on this exciting project! In the mean time, you can check out the videos on this page or contact Prof. Volkan Isler for more information.
The videos above are from field tests in Keller Lake. The image below is a sample trajectory (Points P1,...,P6 are waypoints obtained in an earlier experiment. Labeled stars are points where fish were heard). Additional videos and publications are posted below.
For more information about ongoing efforts for carp control check out this recent news clip.
Related Publications
- P. Tokekar, J. Vander Hook, and V. Isler. Active Target Localization for Bearing Based Robotic Telemetry. In Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2011. [To appear]
- P. Tokekar, D. Bhadauria, A. Studenski, and V. Isler. A Robotic System for Monitoring Carp in Minnesota Lakes. In Journal of Field Robotics, 2010. The conference version of this paper appeared as
- D. Bhadauria, V. Isler, A. Studenski, and P. Tokekar. A Robotic Sensor Network for Monitoring Carp in Minnesota Lakes. In Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, 2010.
Media
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation: RI: Large: Collaborative Research: A Robotic Network for Locating and Removing Invasive Carp from Inland Lakes
Our preliminary work was supported by NSF Projects 0917676,0907658 and 0936710, a fellowship from the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, and McKnight Land-Grant Professorship.
