How Artificial Intelligence is Taught to Navigate Oceans

AZoRobotics speaks with Peter Gunnarson from Caltech about his research into using artificial intelligence (AI) to teach autonomous drones to navigate the ocean using ocean currents. An estimated 80% of the ocean is still unexplored, but our current methods for exploring the ocean are often expensive, such as with ship-based observations, or limited in capability, as with buoys. Instead, we are envisioning swarms of smart underwater robots that can navigate on their own, save energy by exploiting ocean currents, find optimal locations to gather data about the ocean and potentially follow and track marine life. This research aims to show how Reinforcement Learning could equip robots with the intelligence needed to accomplish these tasks on their own. With global exploration and sampling of the ocean, we may be able to gain a better understanding of the physics of the ocean and climate change.