Objective
Today there is ±5% error in estimation of biomass in fish farming. This represents € 91M in loss for the European fish farming industry. Around 80 % of all sales of farmed fish are arranged pre-harvest. To make profit on the sale, farmers and processors are dependent on correct estimations of weight, size distribution and total biomass. Furthermore, fish feed constitutes 50% of the production costs in fish farming. Cost of excess feeding is therefore high. It is a fact that European fish farmers have been facing serious competition from low cost countries during over the recent years, especially the sea bass & bream sector in southern Europe. The FishScan project will develop a novel system for continuous remote monitoring of weight, growth and size distribution of fish for use within aquaculture enclosures. The aim is to achieve an accuracy of 99% in size measurements for fish > 1kg, and 97 % for fish at 100g. The FishScan system has a potential in aid a reduction from the current ±5% to ±3% error in biomass estimates. This represents increased profit of € 40,445 p.a. per farm license and corresponds to economical benefits of €41M p.a. in increased profits for the European aquaculture industry. To achive this, the FishScan project will: Increase knowledge of fish behaviour in net cages to enable representative sampling; Transferring Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology and software to an aquaculture setting; Design robust camera module & optimise LED power & positioning; Design translation system for movement of camera module in fish cage; Develope software for use underwater on fish; Develop LED driver to increase frequency from 20MHZ up to 40MHz to increase depth resolution of ToF data; Design control system for camera module movement, light settings and camera and image processing software; Integrate and validate the FishScan system to obtain a working prototype. The SMEs in the FishScan project expects a NPV (10yrs, 7%) of €1.3M from the project.
Fields of science
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesfisheries
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcontrol systems
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsoptical sensors
- agricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomass
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
FP7-SME-2010-1
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
BSG-SME - Research for SMEs
Coordinator
6600 Sunndalsora
Norway
See on map
Participants (7)
93495 Kage
See on map
MST 1761 Mosta
See on map
0373 Oslo
See on map
7247 Hestvika Hitra
See on map
SA2 8PP Swansea
See on map
N-0580 Oslo
See on map
80333 Muenchen
See on map