[LUM#8] A robot vacuum cleaner at the bottom of the ocean

[LUM Magazine] - Published on October 16, 2018 in Science-Society

Under the leadership of Vincent Creuze, a researcher at Lirmm, and Sébastien Dutertre, a researcher at IBMM, Flipper, a robot vacuum cleaner, scours the seabed in search of shells with very special properties.

Day and night, it roams the depths of the ocean, without worrying about its dive time or decompression stops. Agile and meticulous, it carefully collects shells from the seabed without damaging their natural habitat. "He" is Flipper, a little gem of technology developed by the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics (LIRMM).

At the end of June 2017, a multidisciplinary team composed of Sébastien Dutertre, a CNRS researcher at the Max Mousseron Biomolecules Institute, and Vincent Creuze, a CNRS researcher at LIRMM (CNRS), submerged the robot in the waters off Mayotte. The objective was to collect cone shells, whose venom has unexpected therapeutic properties. Mission accomplished for Flipper: the cone shells collected by the robot are indeed very promising for chemists. "The toxins in their venom could be used in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases or even myopathy," explains project leader Sébastien Dutertre.

These virtues highlight the importance of better preserving the cones found in Mayotte by limiting the destruction of their habitat and illegal harvesting. The next step for Flipper is to explore the little-known depths of the world's second-largest coral reef in New Caledonia during the summer of 2018.

The X-Life “Reef Explorer” project, funded by the CNRS, involves the University of Mayotte and the National Museum of Natural History. It received technical and scientific support from the Mayotte Marine Nature Park for the entire campaign in Mayotte waters.

Keywords: Environment, LUM#8, LUM Magazine, Ocean, Technology