Olin College Aquaculture Profiler

What is OCAP?

The Olin College Aquaculture Profiler is a robot designed to be autonomously deployed along a mooring line, dive down a water column, collect data, and return to the surface. It is intended for use in and around off-shore aquaculture establishments.

What makes OCAP useful?

For many years, there has been controversy surrounding fish farms. While some see them as environmentally-friendly alternatives to livestock, others point to negative effects on the oceanic ecosystem due to large deposits of waste, among other things. Our profiler hopes to help collect data such that sustainable, eco-friendly aquaculture can be developed.

Why a robot?

Some aquaculture farms already have access to stationary, long-term data collection devices. The concept behind our Profiler is to enable a robot to be placed in the water, left alone for weeks or longer, and report back large data sets from a variety of locations under the surface over that period of time.