SBIR Phase I: Novel Suction Tip for Marine Life Avoidance During Robotic Sediment Removal

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be achieved through shifting the paradigm of waterway maintenance into a more regular occurrence, giving way to reduced pollutant levels in waterways, since they will be promptly removed instead of allowing them to accumulate toxins, and increase property values, utilization, and income within the marina industry. Additionally, embedded sensor intelligence and continuous waterway monitoring will grant the community and dredging regulatory agencies increased visibility and understanding of the health of the marine life in the waterway and allow them to more closely monitor environmental violations. With widespread adoption and further development, the innovation could potentially have far-reaching benefits in assisting with water and energy security by keeping inlet canals and reservoirs that comprise our society?s infrastructure clean and running at peak efficiency. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will aim to design, develop, and test an intelligent suction tip for use in year-round sediment removal in waterways. Current sediment removal technologies are destructive to marine ecosystems and costly to employ. As such, this project aims to develop an intelligent suction tip for marine life avoidance during robotic sediment removal in waterways. The project activities include the design and rapid prototyping of a suction tip filter that prevents fish entrainment, design and implementation of water quality sensors for environmental niche modeling, in-house saltwater testing, and marine representative freshwater testing.