Bishop Museum Announces the Coordinated Operational Platform For Underwater Science (COPUS)

# Bishop Museum Announces the Coordinated Operational Platform For Underwater Science (COPUS)

The robotic "dive buddy," developed in collaboration with Sunfish, Inc., will work alongside diving researchers to enable exploration at greater depths and for longer durations, and will expand the scope of data collected to support a broader range of scientific disciplines.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, together with Sunfish, Inc. announces the Coordinated Operational Platform for Underwater Science (COPUS). This robotic "dive buddy," developed with support from Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, will work alongside diving researchers to enable exploration at greater depths and for longer durations, and will expand the scope of data collected to support a broader range of scientific disciplines.

Media Preview Opportunity

Bishop Museum invites members of the media to view the COPUS SUNFISH autonomous underwater vehicle and interview Richard Pyle, Ph.D., Bishop Museum senior curator of Ichthyology and director of XCoRE, and Bill Stone, Ph.D., Chairman and Founder of Sunfish, Inc.:

COPUS Media Preview Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022 2-3 p.m. Bishop Museum Gulab & Indru Watumull Atrium in the Hawaiian Hall Complex

Please RSVP with Lance Aquino via the contact information above.

"Although coral reef habitats extend to depths of 200 meters (660 feet) or more, the vast majority of research has concentrated on depths shallower than about 30 meters (100 feet) – only about 15 percent of this biologically diverse and important habitat," said Richard Pyle, Ph.D., Bishop Museum senior curator of Ichthyology and director of XCoRE. "The remaining 85 percent, known as mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs), or more popularly as the coral reef "Twilight Zone," is largely unexplored. Despite decades of preliminary research, fundamental questions remain about this shadowy world, from the geographical distribution of species to the connectivity between habitats."

"The Coordinated Operational Platform for Underwater Science – COPUS – utilizes the advanced robotic technology built into SUNFISH, one of the world's most sophisticated Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), to both augment existing diver-based exploration paradigms using advanced closed-circuit rebreather systems, and greatly extend the scope of research activities once deemed impossible," Pyle said.

"Over the past several years, we have conceived a detailed plan to tightly integrate both classes of technology (rebreathers and AUVs) into a coordinated system (COPUS), resulting in a level of human-robot cooperation that will allow scientific missions to overcome these limitations through greater efficiency and effectiveness, than either technology is capable of achieving on its own," said Bill Stone, Ph.D., Chairman and Founder of Sunfish, Inc. "COPUS's advanced technology and artificial intelligence algorithms are built upon years of research and development funded by NASA to eventually explore oceans on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and will enable it to play a critical role in collecting data relevant to understanding climate change; mapping geological features associated with historical sea-level changes; and discovering and documenting important maritime archaeology sites."

Pyle and Stone have collaborated with each other for more than three decades, developing some of the most sophisticated diving technology (several generations of advanced closed-circuit rebreathers), and now on the use of advanced autonomous robotic technology to further extend undersea exploration efforts.

The COPUS AUV is currently undergoing a field mission in Kāneʻohe Bay to perform initial tests with Bishop Museum and Sunfish personnel. The AUV is designed to have many capabilities, including the generation of high-resolution 3D maps of coral reef habitat, capturing high-resolution images, collecting a wide variety of data on water quality parameters, collecting biological samples for plankton and DNA analysis, and various other functions. Ultimately, it will also improve the safety of divers by continuously monitoring their life-support equipment, facilitating communication between divers and the surface team, and carrying safety equipment. In 2023, COPUS is expected to return to Hawaiʻi to demonstrate untethered, autonomous performance first on shallow reef deployments followed by deep reef (200 m) deployments.

COPUS is named in part to honor Joshua "Josh" Copus, Ph.D., Bishop Museum curator of Ichthyology, who died during a diving accident in the Solomon Islands in 2019. Copus used the most advanced and sophisticated life support equipment to explore the deepest coral reef habitats in search of new discoveries, and was instrumental in escalating the Museum's research plans, including the establishment of a new Museum center dedicated to coral reef exploration (XCoRE; see below).

"COPUS is not only an important new tool in undersea exploration, it also provides the ability to explore some of these unknown and dangerous areas more safely," said Pyle. "We named the unit after our friend and colleague Dr. Josh Copus, in honor of his spirit of adventure and exploration, and the many contributions he's made to the study of the underwater ecosystem and the protection of biodiversity, as well as his being an inspiration to many in our field."