Every time a fish breathes, sheds scales, or leaves waste in the water, it leaves behind traces of its DNA. That genetic material floats downstream, slowly breaking down. For decades, scientists have been able to collect and identify it. The problem has always been how long it takes, how much it costs, and how many people you need to do it properly.
A new robotic system developed at two US national laboratories is designed to change all of that.
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have built an autonomous aquatic robot called the eDNA-bot. The device can collect water samples, extract and analyse the environmental DNA they contain, and share the results in real time, without anyone in the water and without disturbing a single organism. Oak Ridge has patented the technology, and a commercial partner has now signed on to bring it to market.
What is environmental DNA?
Every living thing sheds genetic material into its surroundings. Fish, insects, bacteria, invasive plants, even pathogens: they all leave fragments of their DNA in the water around them. Environmental DNA, or eDNA, is the collective term for this material. Scientists can collect a water sample, sequence the DNA it contains, and build a list of every species present in the area where the sample was taken.
The catch is that conventional eDNA sampling requires researchers to be present at the site, physically collecting water at specific moments in time. This misses species that were not there that day, or that hide when people are nearby. It also means you cannot monitor a location continuously unless you post someone there around the clock.
What the eDNA-bot changes
The eDNA-bot would allow continuous and unobtrusive sampling for months at a time, and also allows access to sites that are too remote or too dangerous to accommodate human surveyors, according to project lead Kristine Moody, a molecular ecologist at ORNL.
The robot is designed to operate in the challenging water conditions around hydropower facilities, where extreme variations in flow and sediment buildup have historically made eDNA collection unreliable. In tests at reservoirs operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the technology detected elusive species that conventional surveying methods had entirely missed.
The current prototype is bench-scale, assembled from both off-the-shelf and custom-built components. The team’s goal is to build a compact version that runs on batteries, weighs under 100 pounds, and can be carried into the field by two people. Ultimately, they aim for a suitcase-sized system that could be flown to remote sites.
Why it matters beyond hydropower
The eDNA-bot was initially designed for a specific regulatory problem: hydropower operators in the United States must conduct expensive biological surveys of rivers before they can renew their operating licences. That process requires catching and counting fish, which takes years and costs millions. A robot that can produce equivalent data continuously, without capturing anything, could significantly reduce that cost and time.
But the applications extend well beyond dams. The device also has potential for detecting invasive species and monitoring wastewater for pathogens. Any waterway where you want to know what is living in or passing through it, without disturbing the ecosystem, becomes a candidate.
“It saves us as a company from having to do the R&D internally,” said Austen Thomas, a scientist at Smith-Root, Inc., the Vancouver-based company that has signed the commercialisation agreement. “Some of the components of this system are at an R&D level that we can’t achieve.”
What comes next
The eDNA-bot has been patented and a commercialisation partner is in place, but it is still in development. The next phase focuses on miniaturisation, ruggedness for saltwater environments, and making the AI that guides its sampling decisions reliable enough for months of unattended operation in the field. There is no peer-reviewed journal paper yet; the current status is a patent and a formal commercialisation agreement.
The goal is a device that can be dropped into any river, lake, or estuary and left to work, reading the genetic signature of everything that lives there, in real time, without anyone watching.
Sources
“Aquatic robot to monitor species, advance hydropower.” Oak Ridge National Laboratory News, 31 March 2026. URL: https://www.ornl.gov/news/aquatic-robot-monitor-species-advance-hydropower
Commercialisation partner Smith-Root, Inc., Vancouver, Washington. URL: https://www.smith-root.com
ORNL eDNA/hydropower programme “The eDNA of Hydropower.” Oak Ridge National Laboratory project page. URL: https://www.ornl.gov/project/edna-hydropower
Co-inventor affiliation Brenda Pracheil, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. URL: https://www.pnnl.gov
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Ray Jackson holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Manitoba and a PhD in Physics from Carleton University. His reporting interests include Current and Future Technologies, Engineering and Artificial Intelligence.