‘Living sensors’ hold promise for ocean surveillance, says DARPA
In a recently posted request for information, the Biological Technologies Office of DARPA notes that the ability to use natural biological activity of various marine species to provide distributed, persistent sensing could greatly expand ocean monitoring capabilities. Current approaches using sensor technology are both limited in scope, and subject to deterioration from the harsh environment.
Barriers to persistent, widespread sensing using current technology, says DARPA, “include sensitivity/specificity, high sensor/platform costs, limited access to regions of interest, and routine maintenance robustness associated with corrosion prevention, biofouling removal, and battery exchange.” Instead, the agency suggests, these obstacles could be circumvented by “reimagining” living organisms as sensor elements.
The natural behaviors of such organisms, DARPA believes, could provide the same data – in whole or in part – as that of inorganic electromechanical sensors. Further, “in some cases, signal processing and storage can be performed remotely thereby reducing the need for local infrastructure and maintenance.” Such remotely accessible living sensors, says the post, would greatly increase maritime awareness and reduce risk to US assets.
The agency is seeking innovative concepts on forming living sensor elements “based on organismal function, behavior, and response to environmental stimulus.” Specifically, the resulting data should provide “actionable information for surveillance operations.”
Responses to this information request need to address one or more of the following topics:
- Sensor and sensor network conceptual design
- Concept of operation
- Methods to use energy emitted from an organism(s) as input signals to new sensing or imaging modalities
- Techniques to understand and use avian olfaction and/or marine chemoreception to detect compounds or phenomena of interest
- Means to convert marine species migration patterns, settlement strategies, or other life cycle travel including magnetic field orientation, into tactically useful information for naval operations
- Methods to transmit data to remote observers using biological means
- Techniques to interpret changes in the natural underwater soundscape relative to human activities. Information regarding locating the source of anthropogenic disturbance is particularly of interest
- Suggestions for completely novel applications of marine species behavior to defense applications
In addition, any responses need to “identify high-impact, real-world applications for the approaches to change the marine sensing paradigm.”
For more, see the DARPA Living Sensors request for information.
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