Fossil-sorting robots could advance ocean studies

According to the team, the new technology automates a tedious process that plays a key role in advancing our understanding of the world’s oceans and climate, today and in the prehistoric past.

Named ‘Forabot’, the new technology uses robotics and artificial intelligence to physically manipulate the remains of organisms called foraminifera, or forams, so that they can be isolated, imaged and identified.

“The beauty of this technology is that it is made using relatively inexpensive off-the-shelf components, and we are making both the designs and the artificial intelligence software open source,” said Edgar Lobaton, co-author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University.

“Our goal is to make this tool widely accessible, so that it can be used by as many researchers as possible to advance our understanding of oceans, biodiversity and climate.”

Forams are protists, neither plant nor animal, and have been prevalent in our oceans for more than 100 million years. When they die, they leave behind their tiny shells, most less than a millimetre wide. These shells give scientists insights into the characteristics of the oceans as they existed when the forams were alive.