Wednesday, September 17, 2008

WHOI snags $500K grant for water toxin detection research

By Mass High Tech Staff

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has announced its receipt of a $508,494 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use technology in testing drinking water for harmful algal bloom cells.

The technology, an automated fiber-optic array system, is designed to identify and count harmful algae in a sample of water. The system, officials from the Cape Cod institution report, nears the goal of an automatic warning system to alert the public about harmful water conditions.

The WHOI, based in Woods Hole, is one of five recipients of EPA research grants to protect public drinking water by detecting known and emerging contaminants.

The WHOI last month made news with the completion of the first mission for the organization’s Sentry underwater autonomous vehicle. The robot is a free-swimming, independent robot capable of operating without tethers or other connections to researchers on a ship, according to WHOI. The robot can dive 3 miles deep and is pre-programmed with guidance for deep-water surveying, but it can also make its own decisions about navigating the seafloor terrain, WHOI said.

On the mission, the Sentry used sonar and WHOI’s TowCam photomapping technology to survey and locate proposed deep-water sites off the coasts of Washington and Oregon for seafloor instruments to be deployed in the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative. The robot made six dives in July and August, according to WHOI. The robot is designed to swim like a fish or fly like a helicopter through the water.