Researchers at the University of California at San Diego are developing control systems for miniature underwater robotic "swarms" that could one day help monitor oil spills and the fate of sewage and pollutants released into the water. Referred to as autonomous underwater explorers (AUEs), these small, inexpensive robots would need to coordinate their movements to maintain certain distances between one another as they created pictures of the ocean's currents and followed the flow of the pollution. Engineers at the university's Jacobs School of Engineering were recently granted $1.5 million from the National Science Foundation for the research.
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