Descripción del proyecto
La acústica mejora la visión bajo el agua
Se utilizan robots inteligentes con cámaras de vídeo para explorar las profundidades del océano y llevar a cabo inspecciones en condiciones impredecibles bajo la superficie oceánica. Sin embargo, obtener imágenes con cámara de vídeo en entornos de agua con poca visibilidad es un problema. El proyecto SOUNDTILES, financiado con fondos europeos, ha encontrado una solución gracias al uso de unas cámaras acústicas de nueva generación capaces de obtener imágenes en dos dimensiones con una claridad y resolución sin precedentes en comparación con las tecnologías de sonar disponibles. El proyecto comercializará esta nueva tecnología que puede cartografiar entornos subacuáticos a partir de esos complejos datos de sonar en condiciones de poca visibilidad. Los principales sectores a los que se dirigirá son el petrolero y gasístico, de energías renovables, pesquero, público (seguridad y militar), medioambiental y minero.
Objetivo
Activities in the underwater domain are essential to the economy and to society in general, holding high expectations for future growth. Unfortunately, the danger faced during underwater works and the fact that it is an uncontrolled environment for humans, make these activities tremendously expensive and insecure. In fact, most underwater operations require to have an overview of the submerged area before even being performed, for both safety and efficiency in operations. The traditional solution to the underwater inspection challenge consists in gathering images with a video camera, normally embedded in an underwater robot. However, very frequently, these activities take place in environments with poor water visibility conditions, deeming the maps unusable and the whole approach a waste of resources. A new generation of imaging sonars, namely the two-dimensional Forward-Looking Sonars (FLS), have produced a recent breakthrough in the market. These devices, also termed acoustic cameras, are able to directly deliver 2D images of unprecedented clarity and resolution compared to other available sonar technologies. However, working with sonar data is much more challenging than processing optical images. Given the lack of solutions in the market to generate maps with this kind of data, a PhD thesis from the University of Girona (UdG) developed a mosaicing pipeline tailored to the peculiarities of FLS images, providing a pioneering way to map underwater environments in low visibility conditions. IQUA Robotics exclusively licensed the technology from the UdG on January 2019 with the aim of evolving it from TRL5 to TRL 9 and make it commercial by 2020. The main sectors that may be interested in the technology are: oil and gas; renewable energies; food (fisheries); public sector (security and military); environmental and mining, to name a few. Thus, the goal of this proposal is to assess the feasibility of the validated technology in the targeted markets.
Ámbito científico
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheries
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsoptical sensors
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringrobotics
Programa(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoriaConvocatoria de subcontratación
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1
Régimen de financiación
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinador
17003 Girona
España
Organización definida por ella misma como pequeña y mediana empresa (pyme) en el momento de la firma del acuerdo de subvención.