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Content archived on 2024-05-29

Locating chemical hot-spots in the water using underwater robots

Objective

Chemical hot spots are geographic areas that contain rich sources of various chemical substances. The aquatic environment, and particularly the seabed, contains many chemical hot spots that require identification, but doing so today is expensive and inefficient due to the limitations of underwater monitoring technologies. These limitations are most evident in three very important aspects of human aquatic activity: marine mining for precious minerals, detection and monitoring of chemical pollution, and detection of underwater unexploded ordnance.

The proposed project will develop a novel method for locating chemical sources: small, low-cost AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles), capable of sensing a specific chemical and autonomously navigating to where its concentration is highest, thus locating the hot spot. Since the turbulent aquatic environment disperses the chemical signals chaotically and obstructs the ability to track chemical plumes, the navigation algorithms for these torpedo-shaped robots will be developed by computerized simulations of chemical plumes.

These will be based on Bio-navigation - unique knowledge obtained from studied marine animals which perform precisely the same task, i.e. tracking the odour plumes emanating from their targets and navigating in the chemical gradient fields to reach the source. The project will create effective AUV navigation software, enabling AUVs to efficiently locate chemical hot-spots in the water; demonstrate their abilities in flow-tank and field experiments; and implement the new technology, both scientifically and commercially, as an integrated part of the EC Marine Bio-Remediation project currently conducted at Coimbra, Portugal. Furthermore, it is a crucial part in strengthening the skills of the researcher to wards creating a European research centre on robotic and cybernetic applications of marine animal behaviour.

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

FP6-2004-MOBILITY-6
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

EIF - Marie Curie actions-Intra-European Fellowships

Coordinator

INSTITUTE OF SYSTEMS AND ROBOTICS - UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA
EU contribution
No data
Total cost
No data

Participants (1)