I live on a small lake in NH with an invasive milfoil problem. We control the plants with SCUBA divers handpulling the weeds. Spotting weeds has been done either by observers on the surface, or by divers running search patterns. Water visibility tends to be poor, about eight feet.
I have been spending time thinking about automating the problem, and started to think about assembling a solution when I stumbled on bluerobotics. This is great as I have been thinking about playing with Arduino.
My needs are fairly simple:
- Run a search pattern in a specified area
- Grab video or stills and record
- Use high precision GPS to record location concurrent with video
- Return to base and upload images/locations to be reviewed at high speed by observer to mark plants.
- Extra credit someday for computer recognition of plants
- Max depth about 15 feet
Â