Biohybrid Sensors for Underwater Monitoring

With the rising climate change and its consequences on the aquatic biosphere, long-term underwater monitoring has become an important topic of research. In this regard, the project Robocoenosis puts forward an innovative concept of
establishing a symbiotic association of different living organisms and mechatronic components to design an autonomous long-term monitoring system. In this paper, we propose a novel biohybrid sensor organ using freshwater mussels as biological sensors. The behavior of mussels is related to the nature of their habitat. The presence of toxic compounds, weather changes, and impromptu human actions, to name a few, affect their behavior. The main
goal is to extend conventional long-term monitoring methods by adding biohybrid sensor organs for a comprehensive study. Two types of sensors are implemented to monitor the behavior of zebra mussels. The results demonstrated that the proposed sensor organ could be a valuable addition to long-term underwater monitoring.