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Swarms of underwater robots for fast & accurate water quality measurements

Project description

State of the art in coastal oceanology and limnology

More than two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. Our oceans and lakes contain 90 % of all life and remain underexplored. It’s not easy studying underwater environments. What is known is that the world’s oceans and lakes are under increasing stress caused by climate change and increasing pollution. The EU-funded VERTEX project will bring to market a miniature submersible robot that can operate in swarms and measure the quality of large bodies of water much faster and more cost efficiently than existing alternatives. The VERTEX swarms can collect up to 100 times more information about environmental qualities in a single pass than is possible with the current methods.

Objective

The world's oceans & lakes are under increasing stress caused by the climate change & increasing pollution (primarily driven by increasing urbanization in developing countries), but littleThe world's oceans & lakes are under increasing stress caused by the climate change & increasing pollution (primarily driven by increasing urbanization in developing countries), but little is known about them as data is difficult & expensive to obtain. State-of-the-art technology is mostly high OPEX dedicated ships with a lot of labor needed to survey for hours.
Hydromea has developed the miniature robotic Vertex submersible that can operate in swarms & measure the quality of large bodies of water much faster & more cost efficiently than the existing alternatives.
Using swarms of miniature underwater robots. Hydromea provides a high-resolution underwater sensing service. Using the Vertex AUV, a small underwater robot, specifically designed in-house to be deployed in large swarms by 1-2 operators, Hydromea can provide consistent, high-density, 3D maps of many physical & chemical water parameters. Vertex swarms can collect 10-100x more information about environmental qualities in a single pass than is possible to collect with the current methods.
With this technology we will commercialize a service where we will detect & map oil spills or discharged wastewater plumes, assess the environmental impact of construction projects & create detailed high-resolution maps charting the health of marine ecosystems. We will improve the state-of-the-art in coastal oceanology & limnology by drastically cutting the measurement costs with swarms of Vertex underwater drones.
We have already had 1st market traction by selling custom high-performance components, developed in-house & signed commercial NDAs with major global oil/gas, dredging & research prospects like Schlumberger, Boskalis & Deltares.
By 2022 we are aiming to build ~400+ AUVs reaching the overall sales revenues of ~15m & ~35 employees.

Programme(s)

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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.

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.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

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

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

HYDROMEA SA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
EPFL INNOVATION PARK, BATIMENT C
1015 LAUSANNE
Switzerland

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Région lémanique Vaud
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
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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.

€ 71 429,00
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