The crown-of-thorns starfish is a well-oiled machine when it comes to killing hard corals. Now, researchers from Australia have built an actual machine that will fight back.

COTS are prevalent in the Indo-Pacific region – particularly near Australia – and are known for their sharp spines that resemble thorns. They’ve become a huge problem on the Great Barrier Reef — COTS are responsible for 50 percent of the coral decline on reefs surveyed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority over the past 30 years.

And the problem is growing – COTS can produce up to 65 million eggs over the spawning season from October to February, according to the GBRMPA.

Researchers from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, have developed and tested a robot that could inject some life into conservation efforts. Their COTSbot was designed to detect COTS in the ocean and autonomously provide them with a lethal injection of bile salts. They recently tested the robot under supervision, with researchers seeing through the robot’s cameras to identify COTS and approve injections. Then, they took off the training wheels to see how autonomous is really is.

“The robot’s detection rate is outstanding, particularly because COTS blend in very well with the hard, corals they feed on, and because the robot must detect them in widely varying lighting conditions and shapes as they hide among the coral,” said QUT’s Dr. Feras Dayoub. “When it comes to accurate detection, the goal is to avoid any false positives – that is, the robot mistaking another creature for a COTS.

“Our detection is extremely precise – it’s consistently reliable.”

The cordless robot is meant to work hand-in-hand with divers, who may have to come in to eliminate hard-to-reach COTS after the bot sweeps an area.

“It’s always great to see a robot you built let off the leash, so to speak, doing the job it’s intended for,” said QUT’s Dr. Matthew Dunbabin. “We couldn’t be more ecstatic about how COTSbot has performed. The next generation will be even better and hopefully we can roll it out across the reef relatively quickly.”

To see the robot in action (below) and to learn more about the issue (above), check out the videos on this page.

Want more? Check out this stunning photo gallery from the Galapagos Islands.