Sri Lanka is an island country, located in the Indian Ocean, with a coastline of 1,585 km long, and the country claims an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extending 200 nautical miles, which is approximately 6.7 times Sri Lanka's land area. [1]
The world’s waters – their temperature, chemistry, currents and life – drive global systems that make the Earth habitable. How we manage this vital resource is essential for life on earth, and to counterbalance the effects of climate change. [2]
To keep our water ecosystem safe, secure, clean and sustainable, we need to measure various parameters in real-time. Sri Lanka, being a country that was devastated by 30 years of war, doesn’t even have the basic infrastructure, such as roads, in many parts of the country.
Therefore it is understandable that there is no modern infrastructure in Sri Lanka to measure and monitor the water ecosystems. Such equipment is very crucial for scientific research and assessment on an ecosystem, which is swiftly changing due to various weather conditions. [3]
The coastline and adjacent waters support highly productive marine ecosystems, and provide a massive economic value to this small nation, while this unique geographical position is highly contested by global powers.
There has been a breakthrough with low cost autonomous underwater vehicles, and as this capability has matured a wide range of hobby and commercial applications have been developed. However, there are no affordable extended duration underwater exploration platforms and this project aims to address this need.
Alex Williams, a young innovator from the USA, has developed a low cost and versatile underwater glider capable of extended missions of up to weeks at a time; using commodity hardware, 3D printed parts and an open-source autopilot. Furthermore, he won the Grand Prize in the Hackaday Prize Challenge 2017. [4]
Underwater gliders use a buoyancy engine to change the mass of the glider, allowing them to ascend and descend through the water. With power only being used to power the engine intermittently, gliders can typically run for weeks or months without recharge, making them ideal for environmental monitoring. As underwater gliders travel slowly through the water, they disturb the surrounding water very little, allowing for accurate and reliable data recording. [5]
