The Robotic Underwater Seine Harvester (RUSH) is an innovative concept which brings legacy fish harvesting techniques into the 21st century. Offshore aquaculture is an inherently difficult and often dangerous endeavor, but much of this can be mitigated through use of submerged cages. Harvesting is one such critical task in aquaculture and has its own difficulties, particularly when using submerged cages. There is a glaring industry need for a simple, modular, cost-saving solution which can harvest fish and keep team members out of harm's way. The RUSH system is that answer. RUSH will enable safe and efficient harvesting from a submerged cage. RUSH is a drop in, "robot of robots" system that will work to corral fish for harvesting. Phase I efforts will focus on modeling and simulation of the full system as well as prototyping critical components to corroborate designs as well as better inform the simulations. Through the Phase I efforts, the enabling technologies of RUSH will be tested and refined; providing offshore aquaculture a major step forward on the road to automated harvesting from a submerged cage.
