In-situ Aquatic Biomonitoring Platform

A mobile platform is proposed for toxicant detection with living biosensors. This platform comprises a field swappable module for a recently developed very small unmanned underwater vehicle (micro UUV). The module will house living biosensors, and detect,analyze, record and transmit data regarding toxicant reaction. Water sampling for confirming analysis is planned. Knowledge that water is toxic can be vital to mission decisions. To this end, various biological early warning systems (BEWS) have beendeveloped. Existing field capable BEWS wait for current-borne toxicants. A need exists for a low cost, easily deployed system that can take the living biosensors where toxicants are suspected but inaccessible with existing BEWS. The proposed system is afield swappable. Multi-agent capabilities being developed in other efforts will enable dynamic re-tasking of groups of the proposed platform to rapidly and accurately characterize a toxicant contamination. The system will find applications in militaryand civilian settings where toxic conditions are suspected in fresh or salt water. The proposed technology will have military and civilian benefits. It will permit better informed decisions by military personnel regarding the drinking or transiting of abody of water. In civilian applications, the technology has applications in environmental monitoring and homeland defense. Environmental monitoring includes detection and localizing toxicants in bodies of water. Homeland defense applications includemonitoring for toxicants in drinking water on a periodic basis or in the wake of a suspected asymmetric attack.