Visualization of Pliant Energy’s swarming C-Ray robots gathering nodules. (Courtesy of Pliant Energy)
INTELLIGENT ROBOTS COULD BE THE BEST CHOICE TO MINE THE DEEP SEAFLOOR THE PLANET WILL LIKELY AGREE By Sean Beckwith
As a Ph.D. student at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science studying autonomous underwater glider deployment, recovery, and data analysis, I became interested in the deep-sea mining industry. I’ve asked experts from a range of backgrounds to learn more about the industry’s targeted technologies and the fate of the Earth’s seafloors.
At a lab facility in the Brooklyn Navy Yard Industrial Park in New York City, a team is building robots to help achieve one of humankind’s greatest undertakings to date: mining polymetallic nodules from the seafloor. The timing is right for Benjamin Pietro Filardo and his team at Pliant Energy Systems, and for the robotic industry as a whole. AI for navigation and mobility is advancing rapidly.
The pursuit of self-driving cars, and uses for autonomous robotic devices abound, as science and industry explore evergreater extremes of our planet. The stars seem to be aligning for deep-sea miners and investors, as well. Technology to mine the deep seabed was shown to work in the 1970’s, yet high entry costs and a lack of regulation have continually prevented the industry from gaining any traction. How soon mining of our deep seas will commence is still an open question, but the prevailing sentiment in the industry is that it will happen within this decade. A near doubling of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration in the geological blink of an eye has convinced many that the world needs these resources lying on the floor of the deep sea now. And – according to exponential growth projections for electric vehicle (EV) sales and energy storage demands – the need will likely grow stronger over the next decade and beyond.
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