SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Growth, electrification, and increased installation of renewable energy is drivingsignificant increases in worldwide demand for metals like manganese, nickel, copper, and cobalt. This increase in commodity prices and projected demand has driven interest in exploring new sources of minerals such as deep sea mining. The abyssal plain contains locations of concentrated deposits of polymetallic nodules, 3-20cm diameter metallic secretions which are a yet-untapped resource of relevant minerals. Current prototype polymetallic nodule collectors propose to function as indiscriminate vacuums, strip mining a significant volume of the sea floor and transporting every- thing to the surface to be filtered, with significant ecological costs in addition to the costs of transporting so much waste material to the surface. Otherlab proposes to develop a nodule collector called the SeaSTAR, a large platform attached to a vacuum funnel that’s ringed by robot arms. The platform would use its arms to walk across the abyssal plain while selectively picking up nodules and depositing them into a vacuum for trans- port to the surface. This selectivity will reduce the cost of mining operations by reducing the mass transported to the surface, and significantly reduce the environmental impact by minimizing disruption of the ocean floor.
