Traditional lake management waits for complaints, visible scums, or lab results and then reacts. Oxybot reverses this by continuously profiling your lake, predicting where problems will emerge, and treating those zones before blooms and bacteria become a threat. By uniting autonomous monitoring, analytics, and targeted physics‑based treatment in one system, it turns HAB and bacteria control into a proactive, planned program instead of an emergency response cycle.

Oxybot uses high‑precision multiparameter sensors to continuously measure algae, bacteria, toxins, nutrients, and core water‑quality drivers across the full water column. Each deployment produces quality‑controlled time‑series and vertical profiles that are structured to leading global monitoring practices and harmonized with the LakeBeD‑US benchmark dataset, making the data directly comparable to published lake observatory records.​

All measurements are streamed to the Lake Link cloud and your smartphone in near real time, while the data architecture follows FAIR principles—findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable—consistent with the stewardship guidelines outlined by Wilkinson et al. (2016). The onboard AI then analyzes these LakeBeD‑aligned datasets to detect pattern changes, flag hotspots, and automatically decide where and when to treat, keeping your lake safe, clear, and ready for advanced research or regulatory reporting.

Oxybot does not add algaecides or broad residual chemicals to the lake. Instead, it uses controlled hydraulic and electro‑cavitation plus plasma oxidation inside a contained treatment chamber to rupture harmful algal cells and neutralize toxins before returning treated water to the lake. The system also uses aluminum‑based electrocoagulation to bind dissolved phosphorus into stable mineral forms—functioning as a more precise, on‑board version of alum, the same restoration chemistry that has been used extensively and successfully in lakes such as Lake Ketchum in Washington State.​

Because treatment happens within the device and relies on short‑lived physical and electrochemical processes, there are no long‑lasting residues in the water column, and the aluminum–phosphate minerals that form are similar to those found in healthy sediments. The approach is engineered to preserve overall ecosystem balance while targeting harmful algae and bacteria, gradually reducing the nutrient pool that drives blooms rather than introducing new contaminants

Each Oxybot is engineered to protect roughly 1–2 acres of lake surface per 24‑hour operating day under typical conditions, circulating water through its onboard treatment chamber to neutralize algae and bacteria and remove nutrients within its patrol zone. The robot continually moves through its assigned area, focusing effort where risks are highest—shorelines, inlets, and shallow, warmer zones where blooms and bacteria tend to emerge first.

For larger lakes, resorts, or long shorelines, multiple Oxybots can be deployed as a coordinated swarm. Operating together, they expand total coverage, increase treatment capacity, and ensure that every key sector of the lake receives proactive, autonomous protection rather than sporadic, manual intervention.

Ion Works is launching OXYBOT Pro in March 2026 as a fully autonomous, AI‑driven profiling buoy for whole‑lake and reservoir monitoring. It carries a multiparameter sensor suite and a WiFi‑controlled instrument winch that run grid‑based vertical profiles, producing QA/QC‑validated, machine‑learning‑ready datasets aligned with LakeBeD‑US style research standards for oxygen, nutrients, bloom risk, and overall lake health.​​

By replacing manual survey campaigns with continuous, autonomous profiling, OXYBOT Pro gives limnologists, consultants, municipalities, and conservation groups high‑resolution data they can plug directly into models, management plans, and compliance reporting, maximizing the impact of every monitoring dollar.

Download OXYBOT PRO Data sheet 

Oxybot is designed to reduce the frequency and severity of harmful blooms over time, not to guarantee that all algae disappear in the first season. Harmful species often persist as durable resting stages (such as akinetes) in lake sediments and can survive for years, re‑seeding the water column each spring when light and temperature conditions improve. Even with aggressive early‑season control, some of these resting cells can still rise and trigger patches of growth in year one.

Repeated spring and summer deployments are therefore essential. Each season, Oxybot intercepts and destroys newly rising vesicles and filaments at depth, progressively depleting the lake’s “seed bank” of harmful algae and reducing the likelihood of intense blooms in subsequent years. Over multiple cycles, this systematic pressure on early‑stage cells drives down bloom intensity and duration rather than allowing the same pattern to repeat every summer.

At the same time, Oxybot’s Aluminium‑based electrocoagulation module removes dissolved phosphorus from the water column by binding it into stable mineral forms on the lakebed, cutting off the nutrient supply that would otherwise fuel rapid regrowth after initial control. Combining ongoing biological disruption with proactive nutrient removal makes each year’s deployment more effective than the last and supports a long‑term shift toward clearer, more stable lake conditions, instead of promising a one‑season “silver bullet.

While Oxybot is a multi‑year solution rather than a one‑season fix, each deployment replaces a significant amount of manual sampling, boat time, and reactive call‑outs. In most programs, labor and logistics consume 40–60% of remediation budgets, so shifting this work to autonomous robots allows communities to pursue sustained, multi‑year bloom control without increasing overall costs.

 In addition to neutralizing algae and pathogens, Oxybot is engineered to remove dissolved nutrients—especially phosphorus—that drive recurring blooms. Its integrated aluminum electrocoagulation cell binds bioavailable phosphate and converts it into stable mineral forms, helping shift the lake from a bloom‑prone state toward long‑term recovery.​

Water passes through the aluminum cell, where a low electric current releases aluminum ions from shaped electrodes. These ions act as coagulants, rapidly binding with dissolved phosphate to form insoluble aluminum phosphate minerals such as variscite (AlPO₄·2H₂O), which settle into the sediments as stable, non‑toxic compounds similar to those found in healthy lakes.​

Aluminum electrocoagulation is widely regarded as environmentally sound when properly controlled because it does not introduce persistent synthetic chemicals; instead, it accelerates a mineral‑binding process that is already used in successful alum‑treated lakes. With repeated spring and summer deployments, Oxybot not only suppresses active blooms but also steadily reduces the internal phosphorus pool, supporting the return of clearer water, more stable oxygen conditions, and the re‑establishment of beneficial aquatic plants and algae that further lock nutrients in place

In addition to destroying harmful algae and pathogens, Oxybot includes an aluminum‑based electrocoagulation cell that actively removes dissolved phosphorus from the water, using the same core chemistry that underpins successful alum lake restorations. After cavitation and plasma processes neutralize problematic cells, a low electric current releases aluminum ions (Al³⁺) from shaped electrodes, which rapidly bind with dissolved phosphate (PO₄³⁻) to form insoluble aluminum phosphate minerals such as variscite (AlPO₄·2H₂O).​

As this aluminum–phosphate settles into the sediments and hydrates, it creates a stable mineral layer that locks phosphorus away long term and prevents it from being recycled back into the water column, helping the lake move out of its bloom‑driven state. Because the process uses aluminum in carefully controlled doses—building on decades of alum use in lakes like Lake Ketchum, Washington— and produces minerals that mimic natural sediment chemistry, the method is considered environmentally sound when properly engineered and monitored, improving clarity while supporting a more balanced, self‑sustaining lake ecosystem.

Download Aluminium Cell Info Sheet

Lakes naturally contain methanotrophic bacteria—microbes that consume methane before it reaches the atmosphere and convert it into biomass and carbon dioxide, especially where oxygen‑rich and oxygen‑poor waters meet. These communities are highly sensitive to oxygen levels: when deep water becomes severely depleted, methanotrophs lose effectiveness and more methane escapes upward as bubbles.​

Oxybot supports these “methane‑eating” microbes by adding fine‑scale aeration and gentle circulation in targeted deep‑water zones, raising dissolved oxygen just enough to sustain methanotrophic activity without fully breaking down natural stratification. Under these more stable conditions, methane is more likely to be oxidized in place as it is produced in the sediments, reducing the amount that vents directly to the atmosphere.​

At the same time, Oxybot’s aluminum‑based phosphorus‑removal process reduces algal overgrowth, which lowers the amount of organic material raining down to the bottom and driving oxygen loss. Together, these effects help shape a microbial community that favors methanotrophy and long‑term lake recovery, without relying on heavy infrastructure or broad, one‑time chemical applications. In simple terms, Oxybot is designed to stabilize the crucial transition zone between oxygenated and low‑oxygen water—where aerobic and microaerophilic methanotrophs are most active—rather than erasing this zone altogether.

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