Inspiration
The rapid growth of clean energy technologies has created an increasing demand for critical metals like nickel, cobalt, and manganese. At the same time, traditional land mining is environmentally destructive, disturbing large ecosystems. This motivated us to explore deep-sea polymetallic nodules as an alternative resource.
We were inspired by the idea of combining AI, robotics, and sustainability to create a smarter way of harvesting these resources while minimizing environmental impact.
What it does
ORCA is an AI-driven autonomous system that identifies, plans, and harvests polymetallic nodules from the ocean floor in a safe and efficient way. A geologist robot scans the seabed and uses a CNN model to detect and classify high-quality nodules. The data is sent to a mothership, which uses Claude to generate optimized mining plans, manage energy, and coordinate all robots. The system continuously monitors the environment and halts operations if marine life is detected. A robotic harvesting crew is then deployed to collect nodules with precision and minimal disturbance. Overall, ORCA enables intelligent, coordinated, and environmentally responsible ocean resource extraction.
How we built it
We designed a multi-agent system with a geologist robot, mothership, and harvesting crew. We labeled image data, trained a CNN for nodule detection, and used Claude to coordinate decision-making and planning.
Challenges we ran into
We faced limited labeled data, small dataset size affecting accuracy, and challenges in coordinating multiple agents while ensuring environmental safety and real-time decision-making.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We successfully built and trained a CNN model, created a functional AI-driven system architecture, and integrated intelligent coordination for safe and efficient ocean mining.
What we learned
We learned how to build and train computer vision models, design multi-agent AI systems, and balance performance with environmental constraints in real-world scenarios.
What's next for ORCA
We are seeking funding to further develop ORCA and launch it as a startup with "Claude". We are currently participating in the Innovative X LA competition, aiming to secure $20K to advance our technology, scale our system, and move toward real-world deployment.
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