Team HYDRA
Advancing Seagrass Monitoring Through Bio-Inspired Robotics
About Us
We, Team HYDRA, are a team of nine interdisciplinary students brought together through the Gemstone Honors Program because of our shared interest in biomimicry, robotics, and marine conservation. Under the guidance of our faculty mentor, Dr. Cecilia Huertas-Cerdeira from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, we are designing and building a soft-bodied sea turtle robot to monitor seagrass bed health in the Chesapeake Bay without causing damage to the ecosystem.
Our Aim
Our team spans multiple disciplines: mechanical engineering, bioengineering, cell biology and genetics, kinesiology, microbiology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. We're developing a sea turtle-inspired underwater vehicle with soft, flexible flippers and integrated sensors. Our goal is to measure seagrass productivity by tracking oxygen production, which indicates ecosystem health, all while minimizing environmental disturbance.
Our Why
Seagrass beds in the Chesapeake Bay are declining, yet they play a critical role in supporting biodiversity, stabilizing shorelines, and sequestering carbon. Current monitoring methods are problematic. Divers have safety concerns and limited coverage, while conventional robots create noise pollution, disturb sediment, risk entanglement in vegetation, and damage seagrass with rigid components. We believe monitoring technology should work in harmony with nature rather than against it.
So... Why Help Us?
Current methods cannot effectively measure seagrass productivity because existing monitoring methods damage the habitat we're trying to assess. Our solution is a soft robot that mimics sea turtle locomotion, a species naturally adapted to seagrass environments. Our underwater vehicle will integrate multiple sensors: a dissolved oxygen sensor for direct measurements, a hydrophone to detect oxygen bubbles from photosynthesis, and an underwater camera for species and environmental documentation. This multi-sensor approach captures both dissolved and gaseous oxygen data simultaneously which is information currently widely unavailable.
We're also advancing soft robotics by optimizing flipper design to maximize efficiency and thrust while minimizing sediment disturbance. Our research will provide design principles for future bio-inspired systems and give conservation organizations an effective, non-invasive monitoring tool. We need community support to fund materials, computational modeling, water tank testing, and fabrication as we move from simulation through prototype development to field deployment in the Chesapeake Bay.
Together, we can demonstrate that effective environmental monitoring is possible without ecological cost!
Stay Connected!
Instagram: @teamhydra2028
Email: teamhydra.gems@gmail.com
Website: https://teamhydra2028.weebly.com/
Gifts in support of the University of Maryland are accepted and managed by the University of Maryland College Park Foundation, Inc., an affiliated 501(c)(3) organization authorized by the Board of Regents. Contributions to the University of Maryland are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Please see your tax advisor for details.
$10
The Lubricant Supporter
Your donation will help purchase water-based bio lubricant for our robot's moving parts, ensuring smooth and efficient flipper movement in the ocean environment.
$20
The Wiring Contributor
Your contribution will fund electrical wires and basic connectors essential for our robot's internal circuitry and sensor integration.
$30
The Testing Partner
Your donation will purchase fluorescent dye used in our seagrass productivity testing and visualization of oxygen bubble detection from photosynthesis.
$50
The Measurement Contributor
Your gift will fund the encoder and tachometer components that measure our flipper rotation speed and thrust efficiency during water tank testing.
$60
The Touch Sensor Friend
Your contribution will purchase one Piezo Touch Sensor, helping our robot detect contact with seagrass and underwater obstacles safely.
$100
The Microcontroller Sponsor
Your generous donation will fund the Arduino microcontroller and programming infrastructure that powers our sea turtle robot's autonomous navigation and sensor integration.
$150
The IMU Investor
Your major gift will support the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), the core component allowing our robot to orient itself and navigate through seagrass beds.
$200
The Hydrophone Champion
Your transformational support will purchase one professional-grade hydrophone, enabling us to detect oxygen bubbles produced by seagrass photosynthesis (our novel measurement technique).