Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-06-18

Search and monitoring of Harmful contaminants, Other pollutants And Leaks in vessels in port using a swarm of robotic fish

Project description


Cognitive Systems, Interaction, Robotics
Robotic fish designed to mimic the natural movements of real fish and to monitor the environment
SHOAL will develop a shoal of robotic fish to analyse contaminants in water and produce a real-time map of which pollutants are present, in what concentrations and where these are on a 3D map of the port. The robot fish will function independently and as part of a larger group. SHOAL will use advanced swarm intelligence techniques to control the robots in order to coordinate the group efficiently and adapt quickly to changes in the environment. This will benefit not only monitoring operations in ports across the EU, but also lead to important advances in robotics, chemical analysis, underwater communications and robot intelligence. SHOAL is innovative because it can analyse chemicals not only on the surface of the water but also those that are dissolved in the water. This will allow the fish to find pollution from agriculture as well as leaks from ships or pipelines.

We have identified a cutting-edge method for monitoring pollution in ports as specified in EU Directive 2005/35. This monitoring process is currently costing approximately 350 million Euros per year in the EU. SHOAL will develop a shoal of robotic fish to analyse contaminants in water and produce a real-time map of which pollutants are in the water, in what concentrations and where these are on a 3D map of the port. SHOAL will use advanced swarm intelligence techniques to control the robots, utilising hybrid particle swarm/ant colony optimisation techniques in order to coordinate the group efficiently and adapt quickly to changes in the environment. This will benefit not only monitoring operations in ports across the EU, but also lead to important advances in robotics, chemical analysis, underwater communications and robot intelligence. At present there are no fully autonomous systems for monitoring pollution in ports. SHOAL is innovative in that it can analyse chemicals not only on the surface of the water (e.g. oil) but also those that are dissolved in the water (e.g. nitrates). This will allow the fish to find pollution from agriculture as well as leaks from vessels in a port.SHOAL will build robot fish which will function independently and as part of a larger group to analyse and monitor pollution in a port. These robotic fish will be equipped with chemical sensors to find pollutants in the water and modems to create an ad hoc network for communication within the swarm. This will allow the shoal of robot fish to build up a broad map of the pollutants moving through the port in real time whilst adapting naturally to changes in environmental conditions in the port. Beyond this, due to the design of the robots, they will be able to search underwater rather than simply on the surface, meaning that if a leak is still occurring they will be able to isolate it even if it originates underwater (for example from the hull of a ship or an underwater pipeline).

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-ICT-2007-3
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CP - Collaborative project (generic)

Coordinator

BMT GROUP LTD
EU contribution
€ 735 218,00
Address
GOODRICH HOUSE WALDEGRAVE ROAD 1
TW11 8LZ Teddington
United Kingdom

See on map

Region
London Outer London — West and North West Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (5)

My booklet 0 0