Application proposal
Mass extinction is striking the planet right now. It is a man-made disaster from consequences of which the most innocent suffer disproportionately. Accumulating wastes of human activity are poisoning the natural habitats of animals, eventually leading to uncontrolled death toll and disintegration of the entire ecosystems.
This is not a local problem of someplace, as the process can be suspected around the world. In our homeland, Kazakhstan, the biggest landlocked country in the world, extinction can be traced in the water - the most valuable resource. The unregulated fishery in the region of the Caspian sea has led to the overlap of endangered species’ natural habitat. Moreover, this has led to an increase of a ghost gears’ appearance which is also hugely affecting the underwater habitat. Endemic underwater species are in the world’s list of the most threatened creatures.
Our team believes that innovation is an integral part of the solution to the risen problem. The background in robotics and mechatronics dictates that the most efficient approaches are developed by the implementation of cutting edge multidisciplinary technologies. We aim to develop and integrate this solution to the real world and make a real difference.
We aim to solve this problem with a sustainable IoT based AI solution. The solution is based on an idea to install beam reflectors, which are cheap, compact, does not require maintenance and are unharmful for the environment, to be installed in fishers’ gears. They will store the time indicator to avoid the excessive soaking of the gear. The main tool, however, is to be installed on a top location of the ship which will send and receive signals at a particular frequency and monitor the exact location of each gear with respect to it. Additionally, the main computation unit will be equipped with GPS and IMU sensors which will monitor the location of the ship and predict its further movement. This unit will send and receive signals on a timed basis for the sake of energy conservation and exclusion of unpredicted interference with marine life. The system will notify ship crew if they have reached an undesirable location where either endangered species exist or this place leads to a usual loss of a fishing inventory. These locations are to be stored in a database that will be updated accordingly to newly-arrived data and make inferences about vulnerable locations using a machine learning approach.
Although we hadn’t discussed our idea with potential mentors, we believe that this idea could be a great solution for the considered problem. The innovative solution we propose has no shortcomings in terms of risks to the sea creatures, it is cost-efficient, simple, and more importantly sustainable. We believe that it can start to bring back the extinction process from the point of no return.
We are experienced in Machine Learning, Embedded Systems, Computer Vision, and full-stack systems development and we know how to approach this problem. We believe that the skills we have and the perspective and guidance of professional mentors from Conservation X organization can be a great match for solving this problem.
We as Humans, as responsible species as a whole, have to find the balance with nature and live in harmony with our environment. Right now, as the land and sea creatures are in grave danger and it is time to make the change.
Let us express sincere gratitude for giving us a chance to share our point of view on the solution of such an acute global problem.
Best regards, Shyngyskhan, Dumnukhammed, Madi