UMass Dartmouth and Jaia Robotics to validate synoptic data gathering capabilities for US Geological Survey (USGS)

Bristol, Rhode Island, Monday, 5^th June, 2023 — Jaia Robotics, Inc., a leader in low-cost, micro-sized aquatic drones, is delighted to announce a $130,000 sub-award from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. The Project “Use and Validation of Micro-Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles for Water Observing Systems” is funded by the USGS to baseline the JaiaBot’s sensor suite against other sensors already in use.

Jaia Robotics continues their product development at pace and will work with UMassD to collect data from estuaries, rivers, and lakes to compare against other currently fielded systems. The multi vehicle capability of the JaiaBot system presents the opportunity to collect comprehensive, wide area data at scale – at high speed and with unprecedent low cost.

JaiaBots represent a significant advancement in affordable aquatic drones supporting the environmental data collection needs of academia, industry, and government agencies.

“The work with UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) team will help Jaia select the optimal sensors to support water observing in multiple environments. The strategy of deploying multiple sensors over a survey area to collect synoptic data is a game changer in terms of speed of observation, and real-time dynamic understanding of the environmental changes occurring throughout that area. The low vehicle cost per JaiaBot finally makes this an affordable reality.” says Ian Estaphan Owen, CEO and Co-Founder of Jaia Robotics.

Ian went on to say, “We are proud to have entered into a partnership with a prestigious institution like UMassD SMAST, funded by the USGS. This further endorses the unique multi vehicle synoptic data applications that the JaiaBot system can provide, at a cost that is more affordable than anything else available”.

Miles Sundermeyer, the PI for UMassD, notes that “The goal of this work is to leverage autonomous sampling alongside traditional water quality monitoring approaches to significantly increase the effectiveness of existing resources – we’re very excited to work with Jaia to make this a reality in our day-to-day field operations.  With the JaiaBot integrated into our sampling protocols, we’ll be able to cover a lot more area in a fraction of time and at a fraction of the cost.“

To learn more about Jaia Robotics, click here Jaia Robotics.

To learn more about UMassD and SMAST, click here SMAST.

About UMassD SMAST: UMass Dartmouth is a top-tier national research university. More than one third of the University’s research funding comes from the School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST) research activities. SMAST is the lead marine science program in the University of Massachusetts system with more than 102 faculty, students, and staff engaged in research, education, and policy activity related to the marine environment.

About Jaia Robotics, Inc.: Jaia Robotics, based in Bristol, Rhode Island, specializes in the design and development of low-cost, high-speed, micro-sized autonomous aquatic vehicles. The foundational product, JaiaBot, represents a significant advancement for the industry because it supports large scale data collection at an affordable price. Jaia Robotics further enhanced the JaiaBot’s accessibility with open architecture, and an easily configurable, multi-sensor format.  Jaia Robotics provides JaiaBots for direct sale and offers comprehensive aquatic data collection services – JaiaBots as a Service (JaaS) for customers who need the data and don’t want to make a capital investment. JaiaBots collect data from the ocean, surf zone, estuaries, rivers, and lakes.

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