From the course: How Tech Drives Sustainability

Case study: Saildrone explores oceans with machine learning

From the course: How Tech Drives Sustainability

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Case study: Saildrone explores oceans with machine learning

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- [Instructor] The oceans are like giant sails, powering key planetary systems that affect us on land. The biggest challenge of sailing across the ocean is avoiding icebergs, and that's where AI and ML can help us. Imagine a crewless sailboat whose engines are powered by the sun. Its combustion engine has been removed and its hull has been covered with solar panels. This boat can go anywhere into the world without using fossil fuels for energy. Saildrone, a San Diego-based fishing vessel maker, has done just that. Saildrone collects global environment data with its wind-powered ocean drones. On their website, they also have a data browser, which you can find by selecting Technology and scrolling down to Data. Once this page loads, you can scroll down to the bottom and click Explore Saildrone Data. This tool visualizes the data that's collected by Saildrones. Each circle represents data collected. The darker the color indicates higher data density. This data allows Saildrone to better quantify conservation efforts by addressing sustainable fishery management. If you go ahead and click Southern Ocean, this was a recent Saildrone expedition and was the first autonomous circumnavigation of Antarctica, collecting data on the ocean and climate processes that were later analyzed by AWS for risk assessment. Saildrone uses machine learning on Amazon Web Services, short for AWS. This has been used to improve their understanding of the behavior and trends of major fish stocks and their predators, such as sharks and seals. Future business leaders of our planet must view this as a call to action. Datasets like the one Saildrone has created inspires our leaders and community members to make our world even better.

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