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Platform for Long-lasting Observation of Marine Ecosystems
CONVOCATORIA DE PROYECTOS DE I+D+I EN LÍNEAS ESTRATÉGICAS 2021
TOPIC 3. Novel systems for observation, modelling and management of marine ecosystems
Institution / Company
Expertise
Role in the project
UNIVERSITAT DE GIRONA (UdG)
AUVs, intelligent vehicles
Technological partner,
coordinator
UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE
CATALUNYA (UPC)
Ocean observatories
Technological partner
UNIVERSITAT DE LAS ISLAS
BALEARES (UIB)
Image processing, deep
learning
Technological partner
UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE
MADRID (UPM)
Wireless communications
Technological partner
INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS DEL MAR
(ICM-CSIC)
Marine ecosystems
monitoring
Scientific partner
IQUA ROBOTICS, S.L. (IQUA)
AUVs, mapping
Business partner,
manufacturer
______________________________________________________________________________
Platform for Long-lasting Observation of Marine Ecosystems 2
2. Table of contents
2. Table of contents 2
3. Executive Summary 3
4. Scientific and technological objectives and expected results ¡Error! Marcador no definido.
5. Methodology, work plan and budget. ¡Error! Marcador no definido.
6. Consortium description, background and capacities. ¡Error! Marcador no definido.
7. Expected Impact ¡Error! Marcador no definido.
8. Analysis according to the “DNSH principle” ¡Error! Marcador no definido.
ACRONYMS LIST
ADCP: Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler
AI: Artificial Intelligence
AIS: Automatic Identification System
AIV: Autonomous Inspection Vehicle
ANN: Artificial Neural Network
API: Application Programming Interface
AUV: Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
BG: Blue Growth
Chl-a: Chlorophyll-a
CIRS: Centre d’Investigació en Robòtica
Submarina
CMEMS: Copernicus Marine Environment
Monitoring Service
CNN: Convolutional Neural Network
CTD: Conductivity, Temperature and Depth
DNN: Deep Neural Network
DL: Deep Learning
DS: Docking Station
DVL: Doppler Velocity Log
EC: European Commission
EGIM: EMSO Generic Instrument Module
EMSO: European Multidisciplinary Seafloor
and water-column Observatory
ESFRI: European Strategic Framework for
Research Infrastructures
EU: European Union
FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and
Reusable
FOG INS: Fiber Optic Gyro Inertial Navigation
System
GES: Good Environmental Status
GSM: Global System for Mobile
Communications
HD: High Definition
IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers
IMU: Inertial Measurement Unit
IPR: Intellectual Property Rights
JERICO: Joint European Research
Infrastructure network for Coastal Observatory
KER: Key Exploitable Result
KPI: Key Performance Indicators
LBL: Long Base-Line
MSCG: Marine Strategy Coordination Group
MARS: Monterey Accelerated Research
System
MBRC: European Marine Biological Resource
Centre
MPA: Marine Protected Area
MSCG: Marine Strategy Coordination Group
MSFD: Marine Strategy Framework Directive
OBSEA: Expandable Seafloor Observatory
OGC: Open Geospatial Consortium
ONC: Ocean Network Canada
PAM: Passive Acoustic Monitoring
PM: Person Month
ROV: Remotely Operated Vehicle
SLAM: Simultaneous Localization And
Mapping
sPC: Sparse Point Cloud
SWE: Sensors Web Enabled
TRL: Technology Readiness Levels
UN: United Nations
USBL: Ultra-Short Baseline
USV: Unmanned Surface Vehicle
VICOROB: Computer Vision and Robotics
VLC: Visible-Light Communication
WP: Work Package
_____________________________________________________________________________
_ Platform for Long-lasting Observation of Marine Ecosystems
3
3. Executive Summary
The urgent need to improve our understanding of marine ecosystem functioning by quantifying
its processes relies on adequate spatio-temporal multiparametric monitoring procedures. Science
and innovative technologies must play a central role in developing the Blue Growth in a
sustainable manner, where advances in enabling technologies such as remote sensing, modelling,
AI and autonomous systems, will enhance our capacity to monitor and predict, assess and manage
ecosystems.
PLOME proposes a spatially adaptive, non-invasive, modular platform of independent and
wirelessly connected benthic stations and AUVs to intelligently observe, monitor and map marine
ecosystems, during long-lasting periods with real-time supervision. The proposal brings together
elements that can be effectively developed with current technology, to provide a solution to the
problem of marine observation that is technologically and economically realistic in the following
decade. Moreover, it is scalable in terms of cost and required resources for marine ecosystems’
observation.
PLOME aims at creating a monitoring solution that has a simple deployment and is easy-to-move
from an experimental site to another, without any cable installation, for coastal and deep water
environments. Stations will provide continuous and intensive temporal observation, while AUVs
will be able to provide such intensive measurement at spatial level. Each system will be powered
with self-contained electric batteries, allowing a platform duration between one week to one
month. AUVs will typically be docked in standby mode, allowing wireless data transmission and
battery recharging for various missions. AUVs will be able to undock and perform intelligent
trajectories to explore an area. Stations and AUVs will cooperate between them through acoustic
or visual light communications.
The platform as a whole will acquire biological, geochemical and oceanographic data from a
diverse set of sensors, including acoustic and optic cameras. Some information will be processed
in real-time, with advanced data analysis and deep learning techniques. Metadata information will
be spread over the platform and transmitted in real-time to the surface where a USV connects the
platform to the shore using aerial communications. Unattended operation will also be possible
with innovative pop-up buoys that will be recorded with relevant data and will be freely released
to the surface to send the information. Complex ecological indicators will be computed from the
collected data, by applying advanced computer vision techniques to classify, count and size
individuals in video images and to generate multimodal maps of the seabed. These indicators will
be processed in an automated data treatment pipeline to enable a multiparametric analysis and
derive cause-effect relationships between biological variables and the habitat conditioning.
The overall objective of the PLOME project is to design, develop and validate several key aspects
that will enable the proposed concept. To that end, the work has been divided into highly
interdisciplinary work packages that can be tackled only through the summoning of different
robotic expertise, engineering, data analysis, and fishery-ecology management. The project aims
to validate the different developments and the overall concept in three proof-of-concept
consortium experiments: 1) in a coastal environment; 2) in a deep marine protected area; and 3)
during one-week in the OBSEA cabled observatory.
Expected outcomes involve the development of new underwater technologies, the contribution to
existing EU directives and strategies for habitat management and restoration, the knowledge
transfer to existing EU monitoring infrastructure, and the potential to become a monitoring
solution to advise stakeholders and policy makers in achieving clean, healthy and productive seas.
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_ Platform for Long-lasting Observation of Marine Ecosystems
4
Keywords: Ecosystem monitoring, habitat management, biodiversity restoration, coastal and
deep habitats, ecological indicators, platform for observing, long-lasting autonomy, remote
observation, AUV, USV, underwater communications, communication buoys, multiplatform
cooperation, in-situ measurement, underwater localization, path planning, docking and battery
recharge, deep learning, artificial intelligence, image processing, optical and acoustic seabed
mapping, multiparametric data analysis.