MIPS Project Challenge:
Green Eyes sought to address a longstanding biofouling problem for aquatic instrumentation with the development and commercialization of ProbeGuard, a product that controls biofouling on various moored aquatic instruments by enclosing sensors in a chamber that is periodically treated with a biocide after data is collected. The chamber is opened and flushed with ambient water before sampling to insure data integrity.

Project Scope:
Biofouling was identified by the Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) as a key problem for observing systems that was yet to be solved. Through MIPS, Green Eyes refined ProbeGuard, which addresses this problem by using two concentric cups that form a protective sensor “garage.” Both the outer (static) and inner (rotating) cups have windows that align to allow free communication with the ambient water in sampling mode, and are staggered in protected mode to block the sensors from the ambient water. Upon closing the windows, a biocide is delivered by one to four compact, highly efficient proprietary pumps. All activities of ProbeGuard are microprocessor-controlled, and the time of all actions logged on non-volatile, onboard memory.