Did China sever undersea communications cables yet again? Are ships hauling crude oil leaking their cargo along the way? Are animal transport ships dumping feed bags overboard and causing unseen turtle and wildlife deaths? Are port authorities deliberately destroying underwater archaeology so projects can move ahead?

Getting away with bad business at sea may soon be harder with Mirai Robotics on patrol.

While security is a giant concern, Luciano Belviso, Mirai’s co-founder told Green Prophet: “Mirai’s autonomy can also support environmental monitoring, enabling continuous observation of marine ecosystems, pollution, and offshore infrastructure with persistent, autonomous operations, regardless of weather conditions.”

The company just raised $4.2 million in a seed round to continue development of its AI-driven autonomous marine vehicles. According to the company, the sea is one of the most critical infrastructures on the planet: more than 80% of global trade moves by sea, over 90% of Europe’s foreign trade depends on maritime routes, and roughly 95% of international internet traffic flows through subsea cables.

“The sea is one of the last major physical infrastructures not yet governed by software,” says Luciano Belviso, CEO of Mirai Robotics. “Autonomy is the key to finally making the oceans safe and usable, unlocking enormous resources and addressing critical security challenges. But it must be implemented through systems capable of operating continuously and safely in extreme environments. This is a technological and industrial challenge that requires a true robotics-lab approach.”

Mirai Robotics has already developed two autonomous vehicles designed for different operational needs, targeting ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and patrolling scenarios in both coastal and offshore environments.

The vehicles integrate advanced perception systems, autonomous navigation, remote control, and safety features. They are designed to operate either as standalone units or as part of distributed monitoring systems.

Alongside its proprietary platforms, Mirai Robotics also develops autonomy, navigation, and control systems that can be integrated into third-party vessels. This allows industrial and institutional operators to adopt autonomous technology without fully redesigning existing fleets.

The decision to start in Italy is deliberate. The country is historically a global leader in shipbuilding and maritime engineering, with strong expertise in defense, yachting, offshore infrastructure, and marine technology.

The company was founded by Luciano Belviso (CEO), Luca Mascaro, and Davide Dattoli. Belviso previously built and led complex industrial companies including Blackshape, an aircraft design and manufacturing company later acquired by Angel Holding.

Luciano Belviso (left) and Luca Mascaro (right). Supplied by Mirai

Mirai Robotics has closed a $4.2 million pre-seed equity round, one of the largest in Italy in the robotics and deep-tech sector, led by Primo Capital, Techshop and 40Jemz Ventures, with participation from Italian and international angel investors. The capital will accelerate technology development, strengthen the team, and launch new pilot projects with industrial and institutional partners.

We love that the company can catch polluters in real time and take risks to rescue those at sea where other seafarers may not dare or have the expertise.

Mirai (未来) is a Japanese word that means “future.”

They aren’t alone. Mirai Robotics enters a rapidly growing field of autonomous maritime technology that can support defense and environmental missions. Competitors include firms such as Maritime Robotics, Saildrone, whose wind- and solar-powered robotic vessels collect environmental and security data across vast ocean areas. Defense and dual-use companies like L3Harris Technologies and Thales Group are also developing autonomous patrol boats and surveillance platforms for naval and infrastructure protection. In Europe, look to startups such as Ocean Infinity and Sea Machines Robotics.

::Mirai

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Biomimicry is one of the smartest contemporary approaches to design, so it was inevitable that Israeli researchers would apply this science to their military designs. Like the Iranian home that mimics a snail’s form in order to stay cool and a bottle inspired by the Namib desert beetle that can harvest water in one of the driest places on earth, Israel Aerospace Industries’ (AIA) latest insect drone, their smallest to date at only 20 grams, takes its intelligence, form and other properties from one of nature’s finest creatures: the butterfly.

An indoor butterfly

The Butterfly drone can perform tricks that have never before been achieved by a surveillance device. It can fly indoors, thereby enabling covert information gathering during meetings inside buildings, at train stations and other public buildings as well as outdoors, and it is equipped with a tiny 0.15 gram camera that takes color photographs.

The camera is controlled remotely with a helmet that provides a butterfly’s-eye-view.

Another unique attribute is the drone’s ability to take off vertically and hover in flight, like a helicopter, but its most impressive feature, says Dubi Binyamini, head of IAI’s mini-robotics department, is the butterfly’s ability to fly in an enclosed environment.

“There is no other aerial vehicle that can do that today,” he told Israel Hayom.

Drone butterfly trumps nature

Trumping real butterflies that flap their wings anywhere from 5-12 times a second, the drone flaps its wings 14 times a second, and makes virtually no noise. This combined with its near translucence enhances its near-invisibility.

While we have no real comment about the military benefits of this design (we are peace-loving greenies after all), we are excited that nature once again proves its might and here’s how: when they tested their mechanical butterfly at a height of 50 meters, AIA researchers discovered that birds and flies fell behind the drone, further improving its disguise.

Although they expect to spend another two years perfecting the project, AIA believes that their hovering butterfly drone will spur a “real technological revolution.”

Photo: Israel Hayom

More Biomimicry Stories on Green Prophet:
Inspired by Nature, Water Tips for the Middle East
What Camels and Scorpions Teach Dayma Tourists in Egypt 
Curvy Desert Home Designed by Iranian Students Mimics the Snail

The post Israeli Military Uses Biomimicry to Design Butterfly Drone appeared first on Green Prophet.

Many people fear that the Egyptian military is using a lethal new brand of teargas to dispel protestors in downtown Cairo.

During the last two weeks in Egypt there existed a menacing energy that I hadn’t experienced before and which felt certain – like a pressure cooker – to explode at any moment. Sadly, as I was waiting to board my flight to South Africa on Saturday, violence did erupt again with terrible crackdowns from both the Central Security Forces (CSF) and the Military.

Presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei called what is happening a “massacre” and tweeted that “Tear gas with nerve agent & live ammunition [are] being used against civilians in Tahrir.” This potentially new brand of tear gas has received widespread attention and the medical community is concerned about its long term impact.

Facebook and twitter feeds are on fire with updates from Tahrir square.

Journalist Eric Knecht tweeted: “There is both cs, cr , and this third propane-butane gas being used the last being even more toxic.”

An Arabic Media site wrote:”تخفيف اثر قنابل الغاز: يبلع برشام فحم و شرب قرفة و نعناع..منقول,” which prescribes a cinnamon and mint remedy to the effects of tear gas for protestors who endure long term exposure on Tahrir square.

One western journalist warned that people are exaggerating the seriousness of the teargas, while Amr Bassiouny has written an excellent tactical guide that will help protestors achieve the ultimate safety during these hairy days. He recommends scarves, running shoes, and a mask, and implores his readers to map out their exit strategy.

The Arabist rose above the potential hysteria by posting the following tweet from Ramez Reda Moustafa, a Neurologist from Ain Shams University:

To the doctors in the field (tahrir and elsewhere), my experience with the gas used by the police: It causes extra-pyramidal symptoms (involuntary jerks in extremities and trunk mimicking a convulsive seizure, occulo-gyric crisis, etc.) and little respiratory distress. The jerking is relieved by low-dose (3-5mg) diluted diazepam given slowly IV.

The type of gas used is still uncertain but it is certainly very acidic and is not the regular tear gas used in January. Please try to capture as many videos as possible of the symptoms for documentation (and eventually legal action).

This wikipedia entry outlines the properties of CR tear gas – the more ominous type than CS, which is normally used in crowd control:

CR gas is a lachrymatory agent (LA) exerting its effects through activation of the TRPA1 channel.^[2] Its effects are approximately 6 to 10 times more powerful than those of CS gas. CR causes intense skin irritation, particularly around moist areas, blepharospasm causing temporary blindness, coughing and gasping for breath, and panic. It is capable of causing immediate incapacitation. It is a suspected carcinogen. It is toxic, but less so than CS gas, by ingestion and exposure. However, it can be lethal in large quantities. In a poorly ventilated space, an individual may inhale a lethal dose within minutes. Death is caused by asphyxiation and pulmonary edema. The effect of CR is long-term and persistent. CR can persist on surfaces, especially porous ones, for up to 60 days.

The use of this new teargas signals an ominous shift in the rogue Egyptian military’s tactics, demonstrating a fierce determination to hold on to power at all costs. This doesn’t bode well for next week’s parliamentary elections, nor for a more accountable, greener future.

image via Al Jazeera/Reuters

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Consider the following scenario: small United Arab Emirate states like Bahrain and Abu Dhabi are planning to spend billions of dollars on sophisticated weaponry; when one of their real dangers is the deteriorating state of the Persian Gulf and the environment of their own countries due to increasing pollution and commercial building projects. A recent article the Media Line points out that these countries, which are Sunni Muslim and have small populations (and relatively small armed forces), are becoming increasingly worried over the military buildup and aggressiveness of their large Shiite neighbor, Iran; which is only a short distance away from them. Any new armed conflicts in the region would devastate the environment. 

In light of this apprehension, these smaller countries are interested in building up a qualitative military deterrence, to make up for their lack of manpower. The interest in spending big bucks on sophisticated aircraft, anti-aircraft and missile systems, some of which cost millions of dollars for one unit, is being done at a time when they should also be worrying about the increasing damage to their natural environment; especially to marine and coastal environments. Think about all the real estate projects being undertaken.

According to the Media Line, Gulf States will increase their defense expenditure by $15 billion over the next five years; the global market research firm, Forecast International predicts that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Sunni countries on the southern side of the Gulf will increase their annual defense spending from $68 billion to $83 billion by 2015.

“The driving force behind the spending is regional anxiety over Iran,” said Mark Thomas, Deputy Director of the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in Qatar. “They are trying to close the strategic gap, countering Iran’s quantitative superiority by superior weapons systems.”

The desire for advanced weaponry has even caused countries like Saudi Arabia to consider the nuclear weapons option a few years ago.

But putting this kind of extremity aside, even the expenditure of money for advanced conventional weaponry seems a bit absurd for countries with very small populations, and who are trying to make up for this by wanting to maintain a qualitative edge. One regional country, Qatar, is trying another tactic, by entering into various cooperation agreements with the Islamic Republic; including ones dealing with the environment.

Signing environmental agreements or something else?

Better to cooperate with a potential enemy other than preparing for war? Perhaps  a small country like Qatar is in about as much a position to become involved in an armed conflict with Iran as Kuwait was  with Iraq in June, 1990, prior to Saddam Hussein’s invasion.

But due to the fact that the Agreement of Cooperation between Iran and Qatar was signed by military representatives for the two nations, and not just by Iran’s Environmental Minister Mohamed Javad Mohamedi Zadeh, and Qatar’s Minister for the Environment, Abdullah bin Mubarak bin Aboud al-Midhadhi, could mean something deeper than just working together on issues like management of coastal areas and control of desertification.

The bottom line in what’s happening in this region, insofar as being prepared against any “adventurism” on the part of Iran, is that a lot of money that could be made available for undertaking projects to protect the fragile environment of the Persian Gulf region, will now be earmarked for something else altogether.

Perhaps a successful cooperation between Iran and Qatar in environmental projects could lead to a lessening of tensions and could serve as a good example to countries in the UAE and other countries which are looking with apprehension towards their neighbor across the Gulf, especially the Straits of Hormuz.

It is  through  these straits that a good portion of the world’s oil shipments have to pass through. After all, an oil spill there, caused by a military confrontation, would spell disaster for the environment of the entire Gulf region; especially wildlife sanctuaries like Abu Dhabi’s Bu Tinah Island.

Read more on Persian Gulf environmental issues:
Iran and Qatar Sign Memo of Understanding on the Environment
Persian Gulf “Mermaids” Face Man Made Environmental Threats
Durrat al Bahrain Artificial Islands: “A Place Like no Other”

Photos via New Seven wonders; Gulf Times

The post Gulf Emirates Spending Billions on Defense When Their Environment Suffers appeared first on Green Prophet.

Many of Israel’s army bases were built quickly, in isolated spots, and 150 of them are not even connected to the country’s sewage system. The waste  ends up in the groundwater, contaminating fresh water sources and crops and preventing the water from being recycled for agriculture. Last year, Green Prophet reported that half of Israel’s untreated sewage stems from a lack of IDF sewage infrastructure.

Over the years, the defense ministry has allocated part of its budget to connect the camps to the country’s main sewage system where it can be properly treated.

Recently, an agreement was reached with the finance and environmental protection ministries to share the NIS 400 million cost of completing the project. A vote was scheduled for Monday, April 19.

But the defense ministry backed out at the last minute, claiming that the environment ministry lowered the amount they had offered to put up annually, from NIS 50 million to 30 million.

The environmental protection ministry blamed the army:

“I am sorry to see that the defense establishment has not yet internalized that the citizens’ drinking water is no less important than buying one more tank or one more plane. What is demanded of local authority heads and factory managers, the state must demand of itself – preventing sewage from contaminating the water sources,” Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement.

In the meantime, the defense ministry will continue to connect the camps to the sewage system at the slow speed typical of military bureaucracy. Let’s hope the ministries stop squabbling long enough to work out a quick solution and protect Israel’s limited supply of fresh water.

Source: Jerusalem Post

More on the IDF and Israeli government:
IDF Adopts Solar Energy Field Rechargers
Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection: IDF Bases Pollute Land and Water
Water Security in the Middle East: From the Desk of Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection

More posts by Hannah Katsman:
Ten Ways to Buy Less When You Breastfeed Your Baby
Are “Green” Garbage Bags Good for the Environment?
Twelve Tips for Saving Water in the Kitchen

Image via chadic

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