Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is being eaten alive by millions of venomous sea stars known as crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS). Scientist have developed a new robot to hunt and kill these sea stars—a murderous, autonomous underwater vehicle called RangerBot. It kills with a single shot of bile

RangerBot: Programmed to Kill

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef can’t catch a break: on top of contending with pollution, hurricanes, and back-to-back-to-back bouts of coral bleaching, the world’s most iconic reef is being eaten alive by millions of prickly, venomous sea stars known as crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS). But in a matchup befitting a sci-fi movie, scientists have developed a new robot to hunt and kill these sea stars—a murderous, autonomous underwater vehicle called RangerBot.

Since 2010, the population of native, coral-eating COTS has been booming, and the outbreak is plaguing the 2,300-kilometer-long Great Barrier Reef. RangerBot is being introduced to the reef—and to sea star nightmares—this week, in part to help with ongoing efforts to control COTS. Th… Continue Reading

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Source: https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/rangerbot-programmed-to-kill/